

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 


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Shelf .ufcL:2,2>o C- 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
































CLOUDS 


AND 

SUNSHINE. 


BY 

MISS MARGARET HARPER, 

\\ 

OF TENSAS PARISH, LOUISIANA. 



3 


r 


■ ‘ - R.'i 

I . / 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
1890. 


Copyrigh't, 1890, by Miss Margaret Harper. 


ss 

si' 


TO 

TI'® T^Gmor\f 

OF THE 

LOVED ONES WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE, 

IS 

THIS BOOK DEDICATED, 

BY AN 


AFFECTIONATE DAUGHTER AND SISTER. 



PREFACE. 


Just as it is, I send my book out into the 
world, hoping that among its many faults some 
little good will be found, some true words spoken. 



CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


CHAPTER 1. 

Wandering in the leafy wood was a golden- 
haired, blue-eyed maiden, and as her dainty little 
feet move restlessly to and fro she murmurs, 
dreamily, “Oh, how I do love these dear old 
woods ! There is an inexpressible charm and 
freshness about them which far surpasses any 
work of art which I have ever seen. The sweet 
scent of the yellow jessamine, the lovely blue of 
the wood-violet, the wild, free song of the happy 
birds remind me ever of home. I love them all. 
All nature is very dear and beautiful to me, — from 
the great bright stars, God’s wonderful mysteries 
which He plants in the sky, to the grand old for- 
est trees which sheltered my naughty curly head 
when I was a little child. My sweet and careless 
childhood ! May I 7iever forget it. God keep 
some of my childhood ever in my heart, and then, 
never mind what the world may prove, there will 
always be something good, something fresh, 

7 


8 


CLOUDS A AD SUNSHINE. 


something left for me ; for with the memory of 
my childhood comes the thought of my mother. 
Sometimes I have strange thoughts of the world, 
and wonder what it is like; but whenever they 
come to me there comes a vague feeling of terror, 
and I shrink from them instinctively, almost as if 
there must be something which would hurt me in 
that strange world, of which I know so little. 
Great Father,” she cried, clasping her little hands 
over her head with the careless abandon of a 
child, and yet with an expression of sadness and 
dread in her innocent eyes, ” my life has been so 
full of sweet sunshine that I dread that great 
world, though I cannot tell why. Let me stay 
here in my own dear home, always secluded from 
the great outside, and I will be happy ; only that 
little restless feeling of curiosity wi/l come to me 
sometimes and torment me so with its wondering 
that I almost feel like comparing it to the wicked, 
cunning serpent which stole into the garden of 
Eden in the long ago.” 

But while the guileless maiden muses thus in 
her own secluded woodland bower a dark cloud 
is coming up in the west, and ere she is aware of 
it a vivid flash of lightning reveals to her that a 
terrible storm is approaching. Quickening her 
steps, she reaches a neat little cottage, almost out 
of breath, just as the storm bursts forth in all its 
fury. The next morning she is up just as the 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


9 


great god of day is shedding a golden mist over 
the verdant forest which surrounds her wood- 
land home, — for the fierce storm has wept all its 
passion away, leaving only sad tears of regret hang- 
ing from every tree and shrub and flower, — and, as 
fresh and fair and sweet as her own lovely roses, 
the young girl meets her gray-haired father on 
the gallery. She throws her arms around his 
neck, and as she kisses his aged cheek she mur- 
murs, fondly, — 

“ May this be a happy day to you, my dear 
father !” 

“ Thank you, dear,” he answers, kindly ; “ and 
may my innocent little flower be ever as happy 
and free from care as she is to-day. Indeed, my 
dear child, I could not bear to see one look of 
care in those sweet blue eyes of yours; I have 
ever sought to shield my darling from the cold 
and withering blight of a harsh and unfeeling 
world.” 

“What is there so bad about it, father?” she 
asks, looking up with some surprise, though his 
words remind her forcibly of what she had been 
thinking only a few short hours before. 

“ Oh, nothing that you would understand now. 
At first, my child, it would all seem very bright 
and happy and beautiful in my darling’s eyes ; but 
though you will meet with some true and noble 
hearts, you will find, when the veil of ignorance 


lO CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

and inexperience has fallen from your eyes, that 
there is much of coldness, of selfishness, of hy- 
pocrisy and deceit in this so-called great world, 
and so I have reared my sweet wood-violet far 
away from the hum and bustle of that great and 
wicked world. Perhaps I have done wrong. It 
may be that you may have to fight with it all alone 
some day. If ever you think so, my child, forgive 
me, and remember that I did it all for the best.” 

“ Father,” she answers, with a great effort crush- 
ing back the large tears which fill her beautiful 
eyes, ” if you don’t quit talking in that way you 
will make this a very sad day to me. Rest as- 
sured that, never mind what comes, you will 
never be blamed by me, I shall have nothing to 
remember but your inexpressible kindness and 
tender care. Look up and see what a beautiful 
blue there is in the sky after last night’s storm 
and darkness.” 

Silently he obeys the sweet voice ; and with 
her golden head resting upon his shoulder, father 
and daughter stand for a while looking out upon 
the beautiful day. But another cloud, darker and 
more terrible, is coming up in the future, though 
they know it not; and, obeying a summons from 
the breakfast-bell, they enter the house together. 


And soon her sweet and winning ways 
Chase the gloom from her father’s face. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. II 

But all through the day, ever and anon, a 
shadow would rest upon the face of the young 
girl, for his sad words of the morning, “ Perhaps 
you may have to face the world all alone some 
day,” haunted her persistently; and a vague, in- 
definable feeling of terror, of something awful to 
come, would almost cause her young heart, hith- 
erto so light and free from care, to stop its beat- 
ings. Once during the evening her father noticed 
her suddenly place her hand upon her side. 
“ Only a slight pain,” she said, in reply to his 
anxious questioning; and, going around behind 
his chair, bent over him fondly, and smoothed 
away from his noble brow the soft silvery hair, 
which almost seemed like a crown of glory in her 
eyes ; that beautiful gray hair, how she loved it ! 
That day the terrible idea of losing this dear one, 
whom she almost worshipped, came to her for the 
first time. 


CHAPTER II. 

The next morning that awful fear was realized, 
all too suddenly. During the still hours of the 
silent night, while his young daughter slept so 
peacefully, his noble spirit had passed away. 

Wondering that he did not appear at the break- 


12 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


fast-table, the girl had entered his room; and, 
when her faithful old nurse came to seek her 
young mistress, she found her lying senseless 
beside her inanimate father with her arm around 
his neck. When she was at last aroused to con- 
sciousness, they found it almost impossible to 
separate them. 

“Father,” she pleaded, piteously, “take me 
away with you ; you are all that I have.” 

“ God have mercy on the poor child,” said the 
old woman; “I am afraid it will go hard with 
her. He,” pointing to the motionless form beside 
them, “ would not allow the sun to shine on her 
head too warm.” 

What the old woman said was true : the blow 
was too hard. For weeks and months it was 
almost impossible to arouse the lovely orphan to 
anything like interest in life ; the dark shadow of 
her great grief had for many, many long weeks 
blotted out all the sunshine from her young life. 
Like some poor wounded fawn, she would fly for 
refuge to her own loved woods, and wander alone 
for hours, shunning the well-meant attentions of 
the few kind neighbors who came to offer their 
sympathy. AXonQ, alone !” she would cry, pite- 
ously, when only the wild woods could hear and 
echo her cry. “ Oh, God, have mercy, and take me 
away to my father !” 

And as the faithful old nurse, her only com- 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


13 


panion, saw the sweet face grow paler and thinner, 
the light step grow heavy, the bright eyes grow 
dimmer and sadder with a far-away look in their 
blue depths, the hot tears would roll down her 
wrinkled cheeks. “ My poor, pretty darling ! I 
must get her away from here, or she will die.” 
Sometimes the neighbors would say, when she 
passed them by in her lonely walks, all unheeding 
their presence, as, filled with a feeling of awe, they 
moved out of her way, “ Poor child ! she’s not 
long for this world.” 

“ I must get my young mistress away,” the 
faithful nurse would keep saying to herself. “ She 
has some relations far away from here, but I know 
the place, and will get Miss Howard to write to 
them, and not let her know anything about it, for 
she would never go; for next to her father she 
loves these woods and the very weeds which grow 
around the cottage door.” 


•CHAPTER III. 

So, on a lovely summer day, a light and elegant 
carriage drove up before the cottage, while a 
young and noble-looking stranger alighted and 
was received by the nurse. 

“ How is your young mistress?” were the first 


14 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


words he uttered, after greeting the old woman 
kindly. 

“Indeed, Mr. Ralph, I can’t tell you how she 
is. She’s out walkin’ in the woods, where she is 
most of the time when it ain’t pourin’ down rain ; 
she might be killed at any time by the wild beasts 
which roam around these woods. Sure, the Lord 
must take care of her, for she takes no care of 
herself, an’ since her father’s death she’s not 
afraid of nothing in the world; an’ I jes’ tramps 
my poor ole feet to death lookin’ after her, — all 
for nothin’, for I can do nothin’ at all with her, 
an’ she grows thinner an’ whiter all the time. 
Once or twice I tried to be cross with the poor 
chile, but she looked at me so pitiful out of her 
sweet blue eyes, that used to be so bright, an’ gay, 
that I just had to go away an’ let her alone, to 
cry my poor ole eyes out to think that I should 
live to see her come to all this trouble,’’ said the 
old woman, lifting the corner of her snowy apron 
to wipe away her tears, — “ the child that I nursed 
from the time she was a babe in her mother’s 
arms, an’ when she died her papa’s pet ; an’, though 
she puts me to all this trouble. I’d kiss her little 
feet any day if I could make it any lighter for 
her. An’ so I said to myself, I must manage 
some way to get her away from here, or she will 
die in spite of all I can do. So I got Miss 
Howard to write to your mother; but Miss 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


15 


Violet don’t know a word about it, an’ you must 
not tell her, but just get her away as quick as 
you can, for she loves the place so that I don’t 
see how you will ever get her to leave it.” 

“ Never mind,” said the young man, encourag- 
ingly, “ I will do my best ; and thank you ever 
so much for being so kind to your young mistress, 
and letting us know. We had not heard a word 
when your letter reached my mother, or I should 
have come sooner. My honored kinsman I re- 
member well, but can only recollect her as a little 
curly-haired child of two or three years. Now 
go and tell her, when she returns, that her cousin 
Ralph North is waiting to see her. No, thank 
you,” as she invited him into the cottage parlor; 
“ I would rather sit out here on the gallery : it is 
more pleasant.” 

” Well, I will go and get you a cup of coffee 
now. Miss Violet will not be in for an hour yet.” 

” Nt>,” he answered ; “ go and tell her first, and 
I will take the coffee afterwards.” 

So, while the old servant goes in search of her 
young mistress, the young man muses sadly on 
the untimely fate of his noble relative. And, as 
he wonders what the daughter is like, he raises 
his eyes and sees a young and exquisitely-beauti- 
ful girl approaching the house. She does not 
observe him ; for, with her hands clasped listlessly 
before her, her face drooping rather low, she 


1 6 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

almost reaches the cottage steps before she per- 
ceives that they are occupied, thus giving the 
gentleman an opportunity of observing how ex- 
tremely lovely she is, but with a sweet, spirituelle 
loveliness hardly of earth. The thought, “ I am 
afraid she’s not long for this world,” occurs to 
him also, and gives a softer tone to his voice as 
he rises and offers his hand, 

“ This is my cousin Violet Lysle, is it not ? I 
suppose your nurse told you of my arrival,” 

“ No,” she answered, taking the offered hand 
with some surprise; ” I have not seen her for two 
or three hours,” 

“ Ah ! she must have missed you, then ; she 
said you were out walking, and I requested her 
to tell you of my arrival.” 

“ I expect so, for I came home a different way 
from the one which I usually come. But you are 
very welcome,” she said, as she felt his fingers 
close over hers, and met the darkly-beautiful eyes 
so kindly regarding her. There was something 
in the grasp of his hand and in the expression of 
his handsome face which told her intuitively that 
she might trust him. 

“ But you have not told me your name, I have 
very few relations that I know of.” 

“ Is the name of North familiar to you ?” he 
asked, kindly. “ If not, I am very sorry, for my 
mother and myself have been thinking that we 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 1 / 

have a claim upon you. The relationship is not 
very near, but I remember your father well, and 
yourself as a little curly-haired girl of two or 
three years.” He notices the trembling of the 
little hand resting so confidingly in his own, and 
goes on hurriedly, as she quickly withdraws it 
and enters the house. “ I have a letter for you 
from my mother,” taking it from his coat and 
handing it to her. 

“ Thank you,” she answers ; ” won’t you come 
in ? Now I will go and read it, if you will excuse 
me for a few moments, and order you some re- 
freshments, for you must be very tired after your 
long journey.” 

As she turns to leave the room, a servant 
enters with a cup of coffee and a substantial 
lunch besides. In about half an hour the girl 
returns, with the traces of tears still on her 
cheeks. 

“Your mother is very kind, and I am deeply 
grateful to her and to yourself for your generous 
sympathy; but I cannot go.” 

“ But why can’t you go, my dear little cousin ?” 
he says, going to the window beside which she is 
standing, with her sweet face half averted. • 

“ Because I have no claim on her, and I cannot 
leave my home.” 

“ But, my dear child,” he reasons, kindly, “ you 
are here all alone, with no protection save that of 
2 * 


1 8 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

your nurse ; do you think it is right for you to 
remain thus? Besides, you have every claim 
upon my mother and myself; does not some of 
our blood flow in your veins?” 

“ Very little, I fear,” is the quiet reply. 

“ And have you not the same claim which all 
who suffer have upon ” 

“ I cayinot go !” she interrupts, convulsively ; 
“ do not ask it.” 

“ Very well, then,” he answers, very gently but 
firmly. ” I will remain then, for I will not go 
away and leave you all alone.” 

“ Indeed I am not alone; my nurse is with me, 
and I don’t want to see any one else.” 

“ My little cousin must forgive me,” he an- 
swers, gently, ” if I seem presuming on such short 
acquaintance; but you reason like a child. You 
know very little of the world if you think that 
you could live long thus.” 

“ But I don't watit to live long. Oh, please go 
away and let me alone. I knoiv you are very 
good, but I can’t go.” 

“You will let me stay a little while then, won’t 
you ?” he says, coaxingly. 

“ How can you ask, when you have been so 
good to me?” she answers, raising her eyes to 
his with an expression so sad, so utterly hope- 
less, in their blue depths, that he yearns to take 
her in his arms and comfort her. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


19 


And so he stays for over a week, and accom- 
panies her in all her walks; while, through the 
management of the nurse, who is a good old 
German woman, she is persuaded to allow one 
of the kind neighbor’s daughters to stay with 
her. 

“Violet,” said Ralph North to his cousin one 
evening, as she sat looking out of the window, 
with a far-away look in her beautiful eyes, “ what 
are you thinking of?” " 

“ My father,” she answered, in a hushed voice. 

“ Tell me about him.” 

“Oh, I cannot, I cannot!" she said, passion- 
ately ; “ do not ask me any more.” 

“ My child, why do you grieve so hopelessly ? 
why do you cling so to your home? He is in a 
brighter world now, and would not wish his dar- 
ling to live here so much alone.” 

“ Because he was my all, and my home and the 
woods are all I have left to love.” 

“ Child,” he said, drawing the golden head 
down upon his shoulder and gently smoothing 
the soft hair from her white temples, “ my mother 
waits to welcome you with open arms ; will you 
come ?” 

“ Oh, my father, my father !” she cried, weeping 
bitterly; “if you think he would wish it, I will 
go, but my heart is broken, and I cannot love the 
new friends like the old; but I will try to be 


20 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


good, and repay them for their kindness and 
sympathy.” 

And so, ere a week has passed, they are on their 
way. 


CHAPTER IV. 

It is a tall and stately lady who waits on the 
steps of her elegant mansion to receive the sad 
orphan. Lifting the slender, black-robed figure 
from the carriage as though she had been a child, 
Ralph North led her to his mother’s side. 
Raising the heavy veil which covered the pale 
face, the old lady opened her arms and kissed the 
sweet young face repeatedly. 

” My dear child, my poor little drooping flower, 
welcome home.” There was something in the 
tone, something in the very words, which re- 
minded the desolate girl of the loved and lost, 
and, clinging to that stately form, the newly-found 
friends mingled their tears together. 

“ Maude,” said the lady to a little dark-haired, 
dark-eyed girl who entered the room an hour 
later, ” this is your new cousin, and you must 
learn to love her dearly.” 

” Well, let me see her first, and then I can tell,” 
is the rather pert reply of the child, as she goes 
up to Violet and looks at her attentively. “You 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


21 


are very pretty, and I think I shall love you very 
much ; but let me see your eyes first.” Throwing 
her arms around the stranger’s neck, she kisses 
her softly, reverently; and then, bursting into 
tears, rushes from the room. 

” Maude, Maude, what is the matter ?” said her 
brother, following her from the room. 

“ Her eyes, her sweet, pretty eyes, they make 
me cry; indeed I tried not to, but I could not 
help it.” 

” My dear little sister must treat her new cousin 
very kindly, for she has no one to love her now 
but us; and if we were ever to hurt her in any 
way, I am afraid we would not have her long.” 

“You mean they would want her up there 
among the angels ?” said the child. “ Well, I 
will do all I caji to hold her down, for I want her 
to stay with us all the time.” 

It was strange, the passionate affection which 
from that day sprang up between the two cousins, 
so opposite in every respect. The child seemed 
to constitute herself the protector of the gentle 
stranger. And, as the days and weeks rolled on, 
they seemed almost inseparable, Maude doing 
much to cheer and enliven the long, weary days 
for the sad orphan, who, as the lovely spring 
weather came on, began almost imperceptibly to 
gather back some of her lost roses. And some- 
times, after little Maude had exerted herself 


22 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


patiently for hours, a faint smile would steal over 
the sad face which she watched with such loving 
solicitude. Out of pure gratitude to those who 
were so kind to her, Violet tried to be, or at least 
to appear, cheerful, and would sometimes busy 
herself about the house, taking many little car^s 
off her aunt’s hands, who allowed it only because 
she knew that her niece would be happier and 
have less time to think if she had something with 
which to occupy her mind. 

“Violet,” said Maude one day, as they were 
strolling through the beautiful gardens which sure 
rounded the house, “ will you help me to gather 
some flowers for bouquets? We are looking for 
lots of company to-morrow, some of them are to 
stay for weeks, and I do so hate company. No, I 
won’t say that either, for some of them I like. 
But there is one girl coming who is just doing her 
very best to catch my brother Ralph, and I just 
hate her : she is a stuck-up, hateful piece ; and I 
know that mamma does not like her, though she 
won’t say so, and treats her like the rest of the 
ladies. If she does anything to you, I shall just 
feel like scratching her eyes out. There, these 
are enough, and now let us sit here on this bench 
and make the bouquets.” 

“ Why do you think that this lady would ill- 
treat me?” Violet asked, gently. 

“ Oh, because — but I don’t know ; maybe she 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


23 


won’t; I only thought that she might, but she’d 
better 7tot!" said the excited child, with flushed 
cheeks and flashing eyes. “ Maybe I am wrong : 
she may love you, for I’ don’t see how any one 
can help it if they know you. But it would be 
mean in me to make you dislike her before you 
ever saw her. Do please forget what I said just 
now, Violet, won’t you ?” 

“I can try,” she answered, smiling; “but you 
should not have told me. Never speak unkindly 
of any one, if you can help it, especially in their 
absence ; it does not seem brave, my child.” 

“ I know you are right, and I do hate such 
meanness as much as any one can; but you don’t 
k7tozv Agnes Drew yet, and perhaps when you do 
you will not blame me. I want you to promise one 
thing,” continued Maude, earnestly : “ if she or a7iy 
oTie else don’t treat you right, just to let me know.” 

“ Tha7ik you, my dear little champion,” said 
Violet, stooping to kiss the sweet childish mouth 
raised to her own. “ Never mind what comes, we 
will always be good friends, woTi't we?” She 
fully understood and appreciated the frank and 
loyal nature of the somewhat wilful child. 

The two girls form a pretty picture, framed in 
by the vines and flowers whigh cover the arbor in 
which they are sitting. At least so thinks Ralph 
North, who comes up just as they have sealed 
their compact with a kiss. 


24 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ What are you girls going to do with so many 
flowers ?” he says, as, throwing away his cigar, he 
bends his tall head to enter the door, and, brush- 
ing aside some of the lovely roses, seats himself 
by the side of his cousin. 

“ Oh, company coming to-morrow, and one 
Miss Drew to see you',' says Maude, naughtily. 

“ Maude, you are a bad girl to say so,” he an- 
swers. 

“ No, I am not, for it’s true, as it was last year,” 
she says, running out of the arbor with her lap 
full of flowers, the long sprays of fragrant honey- 
suckle trailing on the ground as she flies. “ You 
and Violet can bring the rest.” 

They could not help laughing as she disap- 
^ peared behind some of the shrubbery. 

“ Pray, who is this young lady whom Maude 
dislikes so intensely ? She has just been warning 
me against her, and seemed to think, for some 
cause which she could not explain, that she would 
ill-treat me.” 

“ Miss Drew or any one else dare not do that 
here',' he answers, sternly. 

“ Now, Cousin Ralph, I have never seen much 
company, and do not wish to ; so there need be 
nothing unpleasant, as they need see very little 
of me.” 

“ Violet, do not speak in that way. You shall not 
seclude yourself ; you are my mother’s honored 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 2 $ 

guest, nay, our relative, and this is your home. 
Besides, cheerful company is the very thing you 
need, and I hope that all of my guests will be 
ladies and gentlemen ; if they are not, they will 
not visit here soon again. Maude must be mis- 
taken in her idea. Why, my dear little cousin, I 
would not be deprived of your sweet society for 
all of the company in the world. You have an 
independent fortune of your own, but I want you 
to understand that Fleetwood is as much your 
home as it is mine.” 

“ Thank you,” she says, raising her wistful blue 
eyes to his for an instant. 

” Violet, Violet, my darling little cousin !” he 
says, passionately, ” will that expression of heart- 
break never leave your eyes ?” 

” Dear, noble cousin,” she answers, raising his 
hand to her lips, “ don’t let me distress you so. 
I can’t help it.” 

“ I know you can’t,” is the kind reply, “ and 
that is the worst of it. Indeed, I shall quit look- 
ing at you at all if you act in that manner. But 
Maude’s flowers will be spoiled if we stay here 
much longer.” 

Taking the flowers to the house, they are soon 
adding their refining and beautifying presence to 
the already elegant apartments. 


3 


26 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


CHAPTER V. 

Morning, sweet with sunshine and fragrance, 
comes, and with it the expected guests. Stella 
Hyde I will first introduce to my readers : a pretty 
little dark-haired, dark-eyed girl, impulsive and lov- 
able, yet quick to resent a wrong, sometimes as 
quick to give an offence and just as quick to ask 
forgiveness ; and I need hardly add that she is a 
great favorite at Fleetwood. The next is a tall and 
stately-looking girl, with keen gray eyes, some 
beauty, but utterly unlovable ; the other a pretty 
little brown-haired, brown-eyed girl. Not an ugly 
woman among them. With them are several gen- 
tlemen, some handsome, some indifferent-looking, 
and some ugly. One, who is both talented and 
fascinating, a school-mate of the host, Clarence 
Ogden, I will describe more particularly. With 
bright steel-gray eyes, soft brown hair, and a form 
almost perfect, he is handsome in the extreme, 
a favorite in the parlor and on the field, a first- 
rate shot, — indeed, almost everything that a girl 
would admire. 

Violet was introduced to Miss Hyde by Maude 
as they met in the hall by chance. “ Miss 
Stella,” said Maude, “ this is my new cousin, and 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 2 / 

I know that you can’t help loving her when you 
know her better.” 

“ Of course I shall,” she answered, kissing the 
sad young face warmly. “ Indeed,” said she, 
passing her arm affectionately around the slender 
black-robed figure and giving her an impulsive 
little hug, ” I don’t think it will be at all hard.” 

“And I don’t think it would be in the least 
hard to love you either,” said Violet, “ though we 
know so little of each other.” 

How different was the orphan’s reception from 
the haughty Agnes Drew ! 

“ Allow me to introduce you to my niece, Vio- 
let Lysle, Miss Drew.” 

A fashionable stare through her eye-glasses, a 
supercilious nod, was all the notice which the sensi- 
tive girl received. The hot blood mounted to the 
now haughty brow of the host, while his mother 
colored uneasily and presented her to the other 
guests. Edith Grey advanced and pressed a gentle 
kiss on the orphan’s cheek, while the gentlemen, 
with one accord, approached and gave her a cordial 
reception. 

“ I feel almost as if I knew you,” said Edith, 
taking a seat near her; “Maude has told me so 
much about you in her letters.” 

“ Thank you,” said Violet, touched almost to 
tears by her kindness, after the cruel rebuff which 
she had just received. 


28 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ Hateful thing!” said Stella to Edith, after they 
had retired to their rooms. “ The new cousin is 
exquisitely lovely; she has the saddest face that I 
ever saw ; I can hardly keep from crying when I 
look at her ; an orphan too : her dress alone 
should have shielded her. I always thought that 
Agnes Drew was cold, but never knew how 
utterly heartless she was until to-night.” 

“ Did you notice the face of Ralph North when 
she gave that supercilious nod and stare?” said 
Edith. ” I should hate to have been the one to 
bring that look into his face, and Agnes Drew is 
trying with all her might to catch him. I’ll wager 
my best diamond that he is in love with his beautiful 
cousin. I wish Maude had been present; I should 
like to have seen the flash of her big bright eyes. 
I like that child; she is so honest and true. Did 
you notice how kind and attentive the family were 
to the lovely orphan ? And all the evening Ralph 
North did not once notice Agnes Drew any more 
than merest civility demanded.” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


29 


CHAPTER VI. 

So time passes on with flying wings at the hall. 
Gay with youth and health and good spirits, most 
of the young people are very happy. But among 
them there is one sad and lonely heart, despite 
the kind and delicate attentions daily and almost 
hourly lavished on the lonely orphan. Her pale 
face and wistful blue eyes often still the gay laugh 
and thoughtless speech of the others, who are all 
very much attached to the sweet and unobtrusive 
girl, with one exception, and even she, half 
ashamed of her haughty treatment at first, now 
treats her with some show of respect. Miss 
Drew’s first impression was that Violet was a 
poor, dependant cousin, and she had framed her 
conduct accordingly. 

One day, on meeting Maude coming from her 
cousin’s room, she asked, “ Who is that poor Miss 
Lysle ? Is she really your cousin ?” 

“Do you mean my cousin Violet?’’ said 
Maude, haughtily; “of course she is. I do not 
know what you mean by calling her poor ; she is 
rich, — richer by far than j/ou will ever be, in all 
that is sweet and lovable, and, besides, has an in- 
dependent fortune of her own. Why, her fortune 
3 * 


30 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

would outnumber yours by thousands, and it was 
not made by selling matches or delicate wines 
either.” 

“ Bravo, bravo, Maude !” said Stella Hyde, who 
was just then passing through the hall. “Now, 
Agnes, what difference does that make in your 
estimate of the young lady ? The rest of us were 
no wiser than yourself, and yet we were satisfied ; 
the sweet girl would be the same to me were she 
ever so humble. But, with that delicate, high- 
bred air, any one who has any discernment can 
see that it is no common blood which flows in 
those blue veins, were she ever so poor,” 

“ She is jealous of her beauty and the devoted 
attention paid her by her noble cousin,” said 
Stella to Edith, whom she found sitting in her 
room when she entered. “ If Agnes Drew only 
knew how utterly poor she is in all that goes to 
make a true, good woman, she would never hope 
to win the love of such a man as Ralph North. 
Were the girl whom he loved a milkmaid, he 
would take her to his heart as gladly as though 
she were the owner of millions. It is not money 
which makes the woman ; it is the heart and 
soul.” 

“ Ah, Stella,” said Edith, kindly, “ I am afraid 
you are not altogether heart-whole there your- 
self.” 

“ Thank you for the warning,” Stella answered. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


31 


a swift shadow passing over her bright face, “ for 
I know it was kindly meant, dear Edith ; but 
never fear for me. I think that any one can see 
that he loves his cousin, though he does not know 
it himself, and she least of all ; but, if he loves 
her,” her voice trembling a little, “ she is worthy 
of it.” 

“ Dear, noble Stella,” Edith replied, throwing 
her arms around her friend, “ one cannot tell how 
brave and good you are until they know you. 
But come now, darling, it is time that we were 
dressing for dinner. Let me assist you a little, or 
you will not be ready in time; my toilet is almost 
made. Here, let me place this crimson rose in 
your hair; now look at yourself in the mirror, 
and see how pretty you are. But, after all,” she 
said, with a gentle sigh, “what is beauty worth if 
it gives us not what we most wish ? Some girls 
are ambitious to be belles, but I never cared for 
the admiration of the crowd : the love of one true 
and noble heart were worth it all to me. I say 
this to you, Stella, here in the privacy of our own 
room, but would not anywhere else for anything 
in the world; for we girls must not wear our hearts 
‘ upon our sleeves ;’ the less heart we show in this 
cold and critical world the better it is for us.” 

“And when I get to be a woman,” said Maude, 
who just then entered the room, “ I’d rather win a 
name than a thousand hearts.” 


32 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ My, my! how differently girls are constituted 1” 
said a gay voice, flippantly. “ I think it’s fine to 
have beaux, just lots of them. Why, if I only 
coidd, I’d have whole dozens of them flying 
around, and all of them acting the biggest geese 
about me, and wouldn’t I have my fun? But 
that’s not possible, with my red head and turned- 
up nose,” said the girl, making a wry face at her- 
self in the mirror. 

“ Fine jewels and fine clothes, 

Fine fiddles and fine beaux,” 

she sang, dancing about the room. 

“ Why, Ida Lee ! where did you come from ?” 
said Stella and Edith in a breath. “ Come here 
and give us a kiss ; you came near making me 
smash that lamp, you startled me so,” said Edith. 

“Oh, I just walked into that window; you know 
the blinds were not fastened. They told me below 
that you two were in here, so I just came on by 
myself. Is that Maude? Why, little one, you 
have grown almost into a young lady. But by- 
by; I have just arrived; came in on the three 
o’clock train, and my eyes and mouth and nose 
are full of dust. I feel just like jumping out of the 
window into that lake out there, it looks so cool. 
Do you ever go fishing? Ta-ta till dinner,” and, 
without waiting for an answer, out she flew, the 
skirt of her dress catching on the door-knob and 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


33 


tearing a long rent in it. “ There, now ! another 
hole for poor Phoebe to darn and make faces over ; 
I declare I do have a time ! Girls, do loan me a 
needle and thread ; it must be sewed up ; I cannot 
possibly dress before dinner, it is so late.” 

“ No, and you’d better hurry up,” they an- 
swered, laughing. 

“ Isn’t she a case?” said Edith. ” But one can- 
not help liking the girl, for, in spite of it all, she 
has a kind and generous heart beating in her little 
body. Didn’t she and Agnes use to have tiffs, 
though ? She was the only girl in school who 
used to tell her what she thought of her.” 

“ Brave little Ida !” said Stella. “ I shall never 
forget how nobly she stood by us when we got 
into that scrape, and the Professor was so angry. 
Why, if we’d let her she would have taken all the 
blame on her own shoulders. Do you know that 
I have always believed that Agnes Drew was the 
one who informed on us ? And it wasn’t so bad, 
after all, — only a little fun. What vexed the Pro- 
fessor so was the fact that we had broken the 
rules of the school. I told him that I suspected 
her; and, though he was too much of a gentle- 
man to betray her, and too much of a man to tell 
a falsehood, his face turned scarlet. By the way, 
I wonder if he isn’t coming here some time soon. 
I heard Ralph North say the other day that he 
was expecting him to go on a hunt before long. 


34 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


Do you remember how Ida used to brave him ? 
And, after all, I believe he liked and respected 
her more than he did Agnes, who tried so hard to 
keep in his good graces. Why there he is noivl' 
she said, looking out of the window, “ and riding 
well the most beautiful horse that I ever saw. 
And the Professor is not so bad-looking himself, 
now that he has left off his solemn looks, and the 
stern way in which he used to draw down the 
corners of his handsome mouth whenever we 
girls had offended His Majesty; but he is not near 
so good-looking as his horse, nor ever will be. 
But there goes Maude and Ida down stairs now, 
and, if we don’t hurry, they will beat us to the 
dinner-table, after all.” 

“ Maude,” said Mrs. North to her daughter, after 
dinner was over, “ what makes you turn up your 
nose and frown so whenever Miss Drew comes 
near you ? She is our guest, you know, and as 
such must be treated politely.” 

“ Because I hate her, I hate her, mamma ; and 
you don’t like her, either, only you won’t say so. 
If you could only have heard how she spoke to 
me about our gentle Violet this morning, you 
would feel like telling her to go away.” 

“ Never mind, dear,” said her mother, stooping 
to kiss the broad, fair brow of the excited child, 
kindly; “ she will not be here much longer, and, 
besides, cannot harm our Violet; every one here 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 35 

knows her too well. So, for mother’s sake, treat 
her politely, now, won’t you, dear ?” 

“ I promise, mamma,” she answered ; “ only, if 
she acts hateful to my sweet Violet, whose heart 
is breaking, breaking all the time, while every one 
else seems so happy and gay,” her voice breaking 
into a sob, ” I must tell her about it, — indeed, 
mamma, I must ; I can't help it.” 

“ Very well. Now go to your play, dear,” said 
her mother, gently. “ I can’t much blame the 
child,” she said afterwards to her son, when she 
was telling him about it; “but it would never do 
to encourage her.” 


CHAPTER VII. 

“ Oh, girls,” said Edith Grey, one day when 
the ladies were assembled in the drawing-room, 
while the gentlemen were engaged with their 
cigars, “ let’s have some tableaux.” 

“Just the thing !” answered Stella and Ida, in 
a breath. 

“What 6iO you think of it, Violet?” said Mrs. 
North to her niece, in a low tone ; “ do you think 
you would enjoy them, my child ?” 

“Oh, I don’t know, auntie; do not think of 
me.” 

“ Who is to think of you, dear, if we don’t?” 


36 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ Oh, auntie,” she said, putting her arm around 
the old lady’s neck, ” the others would, so you 
will let them have them ; now, won’t you ?” 

This conversation had been carried on in a low 
tone, but was overheard by Edith, who came over 
just then. 

“Yes, dear Mrs. North, there need be no one 
here at all except us, and we will all behave ever 
so nicely; so, give your consent, now, won’t 
you ?” she said, emphasizing the request by a 
soft kiss on the old lady’s cheek. 

“ I suppose I will have to,” she answered, kindly, 
with a slight laugh ; “ there is no way of getting 
around you girls, or, rather, you know just how 
to get around me ; besides, I like to have my 
guests enjoy themselves ; but remember, they are 
to be only among yourselves, and you must not 
think of ending the evening with a dance,” with a 
slight glance in the direction where her niece was 
sitting. 

“ Oh, thank you ever so much ! Won’t it be 
splendid ?” she said, running up to Agnes and 
giving her such a pinch on the arm that it made 
that lady scream and get out of the way, with the 
angry remark, “ I don’t thank you for that, Edith 
Grey.” 

“ Oh, excuse me, Agnes ; I thought you were 
Ida. I was so glad that I did not notice.” 

“ Very likely,” she answered, with a scornful toss 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


37 


of her head. “You’ve made my arm both black 
and blue, — a lovely sight if I have to wear a thin 
dress. I look very much like Ida, now, don’t I ?’’ 

“You needn’t think you are so much better 
looking than Miss Ida,’’ said Maude, saucily. 

“ Maude, leave the room !’’ said Mrs. North, 
severely. “ Agnes, come with me ; I have some- 
thing in my medicine-chest which will soon make 
your arm as well as it ever was.’’ 

“ Oh, it will soon be all right,’’ said Stella, as 
she glanced at Edith’s rueful face; “every one 
knows it was an accident. But we have not con- 
sulted the gentlemen yet, and you know that we 
can do nothing at all without them. Well, here 
they come, so now is the time.’’ 

“ Mr. North,’’ said Ida, catching him by the 
coat-sleeve as he entered the room, “ your mother 
says we can have some tableaux ; you won’t care, 
will you ?’’ 

“ Of course I will have to give my consent if 
my mother has given hers,’’ he answered, hesitat- 
ing a little, with an anxious glance at the slender 
black-robed figure standing at one of the windows. 
“ But, if I grant your request, it must be with 
one condition, and that is, they must be very 
private.’’ 

“ Oh, wc have already promised your mother 
that!' 

“ Dear Violet,’’ said the young host, joining her 
4 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


38 

at the window, “ these tableaux which they speak 
of having, — will they cause you any pain or an- 
noyance ? If so, I will not join them, but will 
drive you over to my sister’s to-morrow evening, 
and you can remain there until they are over. 
My mother must have been almost forced to give 
her consent.” 

“ Oh, no,” said Violet, “ they are to be only 
among the household. I asked her to allow them 
to have the tableaux, and my going away would 
throw such a damper over their enjoyment. In- 
deed, your friends have been very kind and 
thoughtful of me, and it would seem selfish in 
me were I to do anything which would mar their 
enjoyment of the evening to which they are look- 
ing forward so eagerly.” 

“ It shall be just as you say,” he answered, 
gently ; ” but, my dear little cousin, I well know 
that the evening will have no pleasure for you. 
What would I not give to see one glad smile 
about that sweet mouth !” 

” They are calling you ; but, before you go, let 
me thank you for the kind wish. Indeed,” she 
said, her voice trembling with emotion, though 
the tearful eyes were not raised to his, “ you are all 
so good to me that I fear it will never be in my 
power to repay you ; but, if the day ever comes, 
all I ask is to let me know, and I will try to 
do so.” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


39 


“ Ralph, come over here ; we wish to consult 
about our costumes,” called one of the gentlemen. 

And so he joins the rest; while another, his 
friend Clarence Ogden, takes his place at the 
window. 

“You will not take a part in our tableaux? 
will you. Miss Lysle ?” 

“ No,” she answers, quietly. 

“ I am very sorry,” he says ; “ you would make 
a lovely picture. Indeed, it would not be any 
harm, as there is to be no one here except the 
household.” 

“ Excuse me,” she answers, sadly, “ I would 
rather not.” 

“ Forgive me if I have wounded you ?” he asks, 
anxiously; “indeed, I would not do so for all the 
tableaux in the world.” 

“ You do not need to ask, for you have not 
done anything for which to be forgiven.” 

“ I say. Van Dorn, what do you think of the 
ladies ?” said one of the young men to his friend, 
as they lingered a little behind the rest in the 
dining-room to finish their cigars. 

“ Decidedly a handsome collection ; only one 
plain face among the lot, and she as piquant and 
fascinating as you please.” 

“Which one are you speaking of? the one with 
red hair ?” 

“ Yes. She is very amusing, to say the least 


40 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


of it; and I should judge that whatever she goes 
at, whether right or wrong, will be done with a vim, 
if she breaks her head at it ; but I like that sort 
of a girl much better than your namby-pamby, 
affected sort, who will stop up their ears and 
scream if they hear a gun fired anywhere close by. 
The lovely little blonde is a beauty of the angelic 
kind ; she certainly is as fair as a snow-flake. Miss 
Stella is rather a handsome brunette, though her 
changeable expression makes most of the beauty 
of a very interesting face; while Edith, dear little 
Edith Grey, is not only pretty, but is as sweet and 
lovable a girl as I’ve ever met. I know her and 
Miss Hyde well, and they are both of them, with- 
out any reservation whatever, just splendid girls. 
And the other, — the tall one ? Well,” he answered, 
slowly, while he puffed a mouthful of smoke into 
the air and leisurely knocked the ashes from his 
half-finished cigar, ” I don’t like to express an 
opinion not favorable to a lady, though you can 
call her handsome in a cold, selfish sort of style ; 
but, between friends, I should say that she has the 
most treacherous face that I ever saw. You rarely 
ever see hair and eyes of exactly that shade accom- 
panied by a true and honest heart. It is a pity that 
she is here among the rest, for the others are, without 
an exception, a collection of gems. Did you notice 
how heartlessly she treated the gentle stranger 
whom Mrs. North introduced the other night?” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


41 


“ No, I was not here then.” 

“ Well, it was, without an exception, the coldest 
and most cruel treatment which I have ever seen 
one gentle and unoftending woman receive at the 
hands of another; and for regular cold and heart- 
less savagery you know that one of these small- 
souled, half stone and half vinegar, society 
women — or, rather, I beg your pardon, society 
ladies — cannot be excelled; for some of your 
society ladies are unworthy to be called by the 
noble name of woman, — the name which is always 
used in the Scriptures whenever the gentler sex is 
referred to ; though I will not say that of all of 
them, for there are many who are an honor to the 
society in which they move, and not a mere orna- 
ment in sham jewels and fine clothes. When- 
ever you see one of these would-be leaders of 
society putting on airs, it is a sure sign that their 
attire is of a finer quality than their brains, and 
that they have not been accustomed to much. 
Sudden elevation to wealth and station is some- 
thing which requires a stronger brain than some 
of them are possessed of to stand without turn- 
ing. Sometimes such treatment as that I was 
speaking of is coolly bestowed on another, simply 
because her dress or jewels are not as fine, or, 
it may be, because they are finer; in that case 
your society lady will either envy or run after an- 
other. I should suppose that Miss Drew is one 

4* 


42 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


of that sort, though I could see no cause in the 
world for her acting as she did, except one of pure 
native meanness of heart. I tell you, Glenn, I 
could not bear to see it : all the manhood in me 
rebelled against it. When the young girl, who 
did not look a day over seventeen, entered the 
room with Mrs. North, the first thing that I no- 
ticed was that she was dressed in deep mourning ; 
the next was that she had the saddest expression 
that I had ever seen in the eyes of a human 
being. You’ve seen the eyes of a wounded fawn 
after you had killed its mother by accident, or 
maybe you haven’t; but I have, and I’ll never 
forget the sight as long as I live ; it has even 
haunted me in my dreams, and I’d as soon shoot 
that wounded fawn again as to do or say anything 
which could hurt that girl. Mark my words, the 
tall one — Miss Drew they call her — will make 
mischief yet before she leaves this house. Have 
you finished your cigar, my friend ?” the young 
man said, rising and straightening his collar, with 
a yawn. “ Now let’s go and join the ladies ; and 
remember that what I’ve said was only intended 
for your ear, for I honor and respect our noble 
host, young North, and his mother also, or any 
other lady or gentleman at whose house I might 
chance to be visiting, too highly to speak un- 
kindly of a guest of theirs in public, particularly 
a lady. Why, it was all he could stand ; for his 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 43 

brow flushed hot as fire at the slight oflered to his 
gentle cousin. Come, Glenn, I’m ready.” 

“ All right, old fellow ; I don’t blame you at all 
for feeling as you do about the matter. I don’t 
like the lady’s face much myself; but let us hope 
she’s not quite so bad, after all,” said the big- 
hearted fellow, w'ho always had room in his gen- 
erous soul for an excuse for the faults of others. 

“ What a beautiful, what a holy thing is charity, 
— charity for the faults of others !” said Colonel 
Van Dorn to his companion, as they proceeded to 
the drawing-room arm-in-arm; “but, as large as 
your mantle is, my friend, I am afraid it is not 
large enough to cover hers. Here we are at last.” 

They pause for a moment in the door-way, 
gazing unobserved upon the picture within. Vio- 
let sits on the floor at Stella’s feet, gazing up in 
her face with her fawn-like eyes, while Edith 
stands at the back of her chair, with a wreath of 
bay in her extended hands, just ready to let it fall 
upon the brow of her friend. 

“ Oh, take it away, take it away. 

And give her a spray from the myrtle-tree ; 

Don’t you know that her queenly brow 
Will ache with pain if you bind it there ? 

The bay will do for woman’s pride. 

But what will it do for woman’s heart ? 

The bay is for man, but the myrtle-tree 
Is the one which bears its flowers for thee,” 


44 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


sings Ida, as she rushes out from behind a win- 
dow-curtain, snatches the wreath from Stella’s 
brow, and, bending gracefully on one knee, offers 
her a spray of myrtle, 

“ But I don’t believe in that one bit,” she says, 
as she rises to her feet; “the bay is as much for 
woman as it is for man.” 

“ Well done. Miss Lee !” exclaims one of the 
young men, laughing, as they enter the room, much 
to the surprise and dismay of the girls ; “ only you 
should let me present that spray of myrtle. You 
are right about the bay: it is just as much for 
woman as it is for man, if she wins it. But I think 
that Miss Hyde is worthy of both,” he says, lifting 
the discarded wreath of bay from the floor, twining 
a spray of myrtle around it, and, before Stella is 
aware of his purpose, lets it fall upon her head, 
and, bending gracefully upon his knee, raises her 
hand to his lips, and says, gallantly, “ Let me be 
the first to offer thee my homage, fair queen.” 

And Stella answers, as she bows gracefully, 
though her fair face flushes with embarrassment, — 


“ There is a flower which far excels 
The myrtle and the bay ; 

’Tis the white rose of Sharon I hope to win 
And wear in my breast some day.” 


“ Girls,” says Ida, almost under her breath, as 
Stella turns and leaves the room, “ I hate to be- 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


45 


lieve it, but sometimes I cannot help thinking that 
we will not have Stella with us long. I think she 
already wears the white rose of Sharon in her 
breast, if it is the emblem of religion and good- 
ness. But how solemn we’ve become, all of a 
sudden! It’s just like a cloud that crosses the 
sky on some beautiful sunshiny day. Now, Mr. 
Glenn, as you and your friend have broken up our 
rehearsal, you will have to propose something to 
keep us from having the blues.” 

“I’ll tell you,” says the colonel; “let’s have a 
horseback-ride.” 

“ All right,” replies Ida, “ if they will let us have 
the horses.” 

“ Where are the rest of the gentlemen, any- 
way?” asks Mr. Glenn. 

“ Oh, out in the office, fixing their guns for 
another hunt, I believe, when I’ll bet almost 
anything that I can beat any of them shooting.” 

“ All right. Miss Ida. Suppo.se we try now ?” 

“ But we’ve got to get ready for our ride now ; 
I’ll try another time. Good-by till we see you 
again.” 

And never did a brighter or happier party come 
home from a gallop through the woods, with 
rosier cheeks, or a better appetite for supper, than 
the one which left the hospitable shelter of Fleet- 
wood that day. 

“ I say. Miss Ida, your cheeks are as red as two 


46 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


big apples to-night,” said young Glenn, who sat 
opposite her at the supper-table. 

“And I say, Mr. Glenn,” answered Miss Ida, 
“your nose is just as red.” 

“ A fine way to receive my compliment ! Please 
don’t eat up all the preserves and butter; I’m 
awfully hungry, and would like to have some my- 
self.” 

“ Mrs. North,” said Edith, at the other side, “ I 
think you will have to call these two to order.” 

“You needn’t talk, when you’ve eaten every 
biscuit but two out of that plate.” 

“ How did you all enjoy your ride ?” said young 
North, laughing. 

“Oh, it was just splendid; the best fun I ever 
had in my life, with one exception. I came near 
getting my head pulled off, jumping logs and fol- 
lowing Miss Ida through the vines.” 

“Ah,” said Mrs. North, with a smile and a half 
sigh, “ we can never be young but once.” 

“Hush!” exclaimed Ida, raising her finger in 
warning; “we must not have a cloud across our 
sky to-night, not even on your face,” she said, 
slipping around behind the old lady’s chair and 
pressing a kiss on her cheek. 

“ Mamma, mamma ! come quick ; it is smother- 
ing me,” called a voice from the hall. “ Quick 1 
Oh I” it continued, in half-stifled tones. 

“ Maude, oh, my child, my child, where are 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


47 


you ?” called the old lady, jumping up from the 
table, as all of the party, with one impulse, made 
a rush for the hall ; and, sobbing and crying, with 
her breath almost gone, they found poor little 
Maude lying on the floor in a dark corner. 

“My darling, what is it? Speak to mother, 
now, won’t you ?’’ 

“ Oh, mamma,” she sobbed, burying her face on 
her mother’s shoulder, “ I had just left the supper- 
table and come out here, when a great white thing 
grabbed me in its arms : there it is now !” she said, 
with a shudder, and hid her face again. 

“ What is the meaning of all this ?” said the 
host, sternly, as, striding up a few steps, he saw a 
white figure crouching on the floor. “ Who and 
what are you ? Speak, I say !” 

“ Oh, it’s only me,” answered a woman’s voice. 

“ Agnes Drew, as I live !” said Edith to Stella, 
in a low voice. “ Why, I thought she had a head- 
ache.” 

“ Miss Drew,” said Ralph, what does this mean ? 
You came near frightening my little sister into 
spasms.” 

“ Oh, Mr. North, I am very sorry; it was only a 
little fun. I was only playing ghost. I thought you 
would break my arm when you tore that sheet off.” 

“ I am sorry if I hurt you, but how was I to 
know who or what you were ?” 

“ Mean thing !” said Maude, in her mother’s 


48 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


room that night ; “ I believe she did it on purpose 
to scare Violet and me, for the place she hid in 
was right next to our room. Oh, mamma, I wish 
she would go away.” 

“ Never mind, darling ; take this for mother, 
now, won’t you ?” 

“ Mamma,” said the child, after she had taken 
the soothing draught, “ I’m not a coward, and I 
don’t want any one to think so ; but it was so 
dark, and she grabbed me so quick that I was 
almost smothered.” 

“ I suppose she was preparing for her frolic 
when she sent me word that her head ached too 
badly to come to supper; this looks very much as 
though her excuse was a false one. I like fun and 
frolic among the young folks, but this is going too 
far, and it will not be very pleasant for her if she 
attempts another such an escapade in my home. 
She should have known better than to frighten a 
child,” said the old lady, indignantly, to her son 
that night, as she watched Maude tossing restlessly 
from one side of her couch to the other, muttering 
incoherently in her sleep, showing that she had 
not recovered from the shock which the fright had 
given her, 

“ Come quick, Violet ! there it is now !” she 
screamed, rising in her sleep and throwing her 
arms around Violet, who was sitting on the foot of 
the bed. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


49 


“There, now, darling, go to sleep,” she said, 
soothingly ; “ it is no one but me,” and, passing 
her cool hand gently over Maude’s hot forehead, 
directly the child fell into a sweet and refreshing 
sleep. 

“ There, now, auntie, go to bed, and if she gets 
sick or restless in the night I will be sure to call 
you, if I cannot quiet her.” 

“Thank you, dear; you are a great comfort to 
me,” and, pressing a kiss on the girl’s fair cheek, 
the old lady noiselessly left the room. And when 
morning showed her rosy face in the east, Maude 
awoke as bright and well as ever. 

At last the all-important day for the tableaux 
arrived. The host was called away on important 
business, and got back only just in time to witness 
the last scene, much to Miss Drew’s disappoint- 
ment, for, owing to her management, he was to 
have played several important parts with her. 

“ Don’t be surprised,” whispered his mother in 
his ear. “ Edith has a severe sick headache ; 
there was no one to take her place, and Violet 
was persuaded to do so at the last moment.” 

Slowly the curtain rises, and the interior of a 
church is seen. As the minister takes his place, 
it falls ; and, when it rises again, the scene pre- 
sented to the gaze of the spectators almost takes 
away their breath. Pale but exquisitely lovely, 
clad in pure white, Violet Lysle appears leaning 
5 


50 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


upon the arm of handsome, noble-looking Clar- 
ence Ogden, and the marriage ceremony is per- 
formed, Again the curtain falls, and, as it rises, 
discloses to view the bride and groom kneeling at 
the altar. As they regain their feet, the applause 
which shakes the house brings a faint tinge of 
color to the white cheek of the bride, thus adding 
the one touch to make the picture perfect. Again 
and again they call for the curtain to rise, until 
Ralph North, who is standing very near the door, 
staggers out into the chilly night. “ Oh, heavens!” 
he cries, hoarsely, ” what means this fierce pain in 
my heart?” Then, and then only, does he know 
that to see her the bride of another would be 
worse than death to him. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

“Just look at that inhuman wretch beating 
that poor old dog. Stop that, sir!” said Ida, 
stamping her little foot, her eyes flashing fire. “ If 
you dare strike that dog again, I will have you 
arrested for practising cruelty. Stop it, I say ! 
don’t you strike him another blow.” 

The man raised his bloated face and grinned. 

“ What does you care for sich an ole dog as 
that ? He’s been stealin’ : took the last piece of 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 5 I 

bread I had in the world out of my pocket while 
I was a-sleepin’. ” 

“ Suppose he did,” said Ida ; " don’t you see that 
he is half starved ? Wouldn’t you steal if you 
were starving to death ?” 

“ Dunno, miss,” said the man, grinning again, 
“ but I speck I would.” 

“ Now, ain’t you ashamed of yourself, — a great 
strong man like you to beat a poor, starved, help- 
less, defenceless thing like that, as you did just 
now ? Promise me that you will never do such a 
cruel thing again as long as you live; promise,! 
say.” 

“I promise, miss. I was wrong an’ you were 
right, an’ I’ll never do it again. But, bless your 
pretty face, that dog ain’t the only thing that 
steals : some what they calls gentlemen does the 
same thing, only in a polite sort of a way, an’ they 
ain’t starvin’ neither; an’ do you think God has 
any excuse for them ? Why, they’ll get a man 
drunk an’ then take all he has ; an’ do you call 
that honest and the law, ’specially in a free an’ 
civilized country like this ?" 

“Poor thing!” said Violet, shuddering; “there 
was more truth than fiction in what he said, if 
he was intoxicated; didn’t you girls smell the 
whiskey ? there is a half-empty flask now lying on 
the ground where he dropped it,” and, stooping, 
she picked it up and poured out what was left of 


52 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


its contents. “ There, if he should happen to find 
it, he can’t get drunk again this evening unless he 
goes somewhere else to get it. Surely, money 
made in such a way can never bless its possessor. 
Poor man ! some mother’s heart is bleeding now 
for his sin; some little child is hungry and cold. 
God grant that some day the horrible curse of 
whiskey will be lifted from our land and from our 
hearts.” 

“ ‘ Where is my wandering boy to-night ?’ ” 

sang Edith, softly, as they moved away, on that 
lovely Sabbath eve ; and Stella answered in a 
low, sweet voice, — 

“ Ah, mother, dear mother, the beautiful boy 
Who was once your joy and pride 

Is fast asleep on the sward to-day. 

With an empty flask at his side. 

I’ve seen him myself with his feet all bare. 

And his clothes all ragged and torn ; 

You’d scarcely know him, mother dear. 

He looks so old and worn. 

The beautiful hair which, with tender care. 

You used to love so well. 

Is matted and soiled with blood to-day. 

Where it struck on a stone as he fell. 

No, you’d hardly know him, mother dear. 

Could you see him as I do to-day ; 

Ilis face is all bloated and swollen with rum. 

And his hair is all sprinkled with gray. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


53 


He loved you, mother, I know he did. 

And his father old and gray; 

He loved you both, for he told me so. 

Though he’s gone so far astray. 

’Twas not all his fault, though he blames himself, 
With tears and with anguish now ; 

’Twas not his fault : ’twas the wicked world 
Which lured your boy away. 

There is something noble about him yet. 

Though he seems so changed and worn. 

Though his brow is clouded and stained with blood, 
I'hough his coat is ragged and torn. 

There’s a just God above, and your prayers are heard. 
For he’s coming home again, 

A sadder and wiser, yet stronger, man 
Than when he went away. 

The sunshine is coming back again. 

The clouds are all clearing away ; 

The blue sky is smiling above in its dome. 

And you will be happy to-day.” 


As the girls were sitting quietly on a log in the 
edge of the wood listening to Stella’s song, they 
heard a convulsive sob behind them, and, looking 
around, saw the unfortunate man whom they had 
left in the forest, sitting near on a stone, with his 
face buried in his hands, sobbing like a child. 
With one impulse they all, except Agnes, who 
shrank away, went up to him, while Edith said, 

5 * 


54 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE, 


kindly, “ What is the matter ? can we do anything 
for you ?” 

“ Oh, miss,” said the man, brushing the tears 
away with his ragged sleeve and looking up at 
Stella, “when you young ladies left me I heard 
you commence to sing. I always loved music, and 
I staggered on to hear the rest ; I’ve been sitting 
here listening to it all. 

“And I saw my mother’s gentle face 
And my father old and gray, 

And I knew they were thinking of me, their boy 
Who has wandered so far away. 

I know that I’ve broken both their hearts, 

And I don’t deserve to go ; 

But I never will drink another drop. 

And I’ll start for home to-day. 

I may not find them living, 

For it’s been many a day 

Since I’ve heard from father and mother; 

But I’m going, anyway. 

And I’ve come to thank you, ladies. 

For singing that beautiful song, 

And I’ll never forget your sweet faces 
As I go on my journey along. 

’Twas your song which started me homeward. 

And now I will never stop 

Till I reach the dear old cottage 
Which I left so long ago. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


55 


No, not till I reach the humble cot 
Which sheltered my father and mother 

And one little blue-eyed baby girl, 

My sweet little baby sister. 

Oh, I loved that fair little sister; 

Though I was so rough and so wild. 

She’d throw her soft arms around me, — 

The sweet little innocent child. 

When father and mother were angry 

With their boy for his wild, wicked ways, 

She’d come to me often and kiss me. 

The same, yes, just always the same.” 

He thrust his rough hand in his bosom 
And drew out a golden curl. 

And wept and sobbed as he kissed it. 

Then put it back again. 

“ Oh, well I remember the night. 

The night that I ran away ; 

I found her asleep in her little bed. 

And I cut this curl away. 

She died soon after that, I heard. 

When I was far away. 

And one of the last words that she said 
Was ‘ Kiss dear Robbie for May.’ 

If she’d lived, yes, I might have gone back. 
But ’twas lonesome for me when she died ; 

And I grew wilder and drank more rum 
And wished that I too could have died. 

I stole to the window one dark, stormy night. 
And father and mother were there; 

But her little bed was empty. 

And empty her little chair. 


56 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


I stole out again in the darkness, — 

The world seemed so dreary and wide, — 

I leaned once more ’gainst the old cottage door. 
Then sank on the low step and cried. 

And old Tray barked as I stole away 
Again in the cold and storm ; 

But when he came up he licked my hand. 

For he knew that it was me. 

I drew the old dog close up to my heart 
As if to ease its pain ; 

Then left him there and wandered away 
In the cold and dark again. 

Oh, many a stormy night since then 
I’ve slept on the bare icy ground. 

With no pillow to rest my aching head 
Except a piece of stone. 

Oh, how it ached for the tender touch 
Of my mother’s gentle hand ! 

And how I yearned to hear one sound 
Of my kind old father’s voice ! 

And then I’d make up my mind to quit ; 

But the boys would bring more rum. 

And the first thing I knew I’d be off on a spree,' 
’Twas more than I could stand. 

Oh, I was not always a ragged, 

A rough and brutal man ; 

’Twas whiskey changed me, ladies. 

And made me what I am. 

I know that you think I am weak. 

But it's true, every word that I’ve said ; 

For whiskey is driving good men to the dogs 
As fast as it can be made.” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


57 


And as he turned and left them, 

There was something in his air, 

Though his clothes were all ragged and soiled. 

Which was noble, manly, and fair. 

They watched him go off in the distance ; 

In each girl’s heart was a prayer : 

They looked in each other’s faces ; 

^ There was not one dry eye there. 

“What do you think Miss Agnes Drew told 
mamma when she came home from her walk to- 
day ahead of the rest of you ?” said Maude. 

“ We have no idea ; what was it ?’’ they an- 
swered. 

“That you were all out there in the woods 
talking to a drunken man, but she got tired of it, 
and came in.” 

“ And so we were,” said Ida ; “ but there was 
much of the gentleman about him, if he zvas 
drunk; and he’s promised us that he will never 
take another drop of whiskey as long as he lives, 
and has gone home to his mother and father, 
whom he has not seen for years ; and it was all 
caused by a beautiful song which Stella made up 
and sang.” 

“Is that so, Stella?” said Mrs. North, drawing 
the blushing girl to her side, as she just then en- 
tered the room. “ I am glad that you stayed if 
your presence could do any good. Remember, 
girls, that every woman is accountable for the in 


58 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


Jliience which she exercises in this world. But I 
did not know that my little friend was a composer 
before,” she continued, brushing the waves of 
beautiful hair from the girl’s white brow and look- 
ing into the dark, dreamy eyes. “Allow me to 
congratulate you. You must sing it for me some 
time.” 

“ Thank you, dear Mrs. North,” she answered, 
timidly; “ I will if you’ll promise not to say any- 
thing about it.” 

“ All right, dear, if you wish it ; but I see no 
reason why you should hide your light under a 
bushel.” 

“ Ah ! Mrs. North, I am afraid my poor little 
light would hardly be seen in this big world, when 
there are others which are so much brighter.” 

“That should be for others to judge, and not 
yourself. Besides, dear, don’t you remember what 
the Bible says about our talents ? If you have 
only one little talent, you should not bury it, but 
do all the good that you can with it, and that is 
all that can be expected.” 

“ So Miss Agnes did not gain anything by tell- 
ing tales, after all.” 

“Ah, Maude, Maude! you are a sad case: I 
don’t know what I am going to do with you,” said 
the old lady, turning away with an irrepressible 
smile. 

“ Girls,” said Ida, “ I was so sorry that we did 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


59 


not have some money with us to give that poor 
man, for he looked like he needed help very much, 
and I expect it is a long way from here to his 
home ; but he looked so proud that I would have 
been almost afraid to offer it to him even if we’d 
had it. Wouldn’t you like to see the meeting 
between the old gray-headed couple and their 
wayward boy ?” 

“ His story reminds me somewhat of that of 
the Prodigal Son,” said Mrs. North. “Ah, how 
many of our boys are recklessly throwing away 
all the wealth and strength of their young man- 
hood in the wine-cup, whose sparkle upon the 
brim is so beautiful in their eyes; and not till 
they have tasted of the bitterness of its dregs will 
they have the strength to cast it from them, and 
maybe not even then, for ‘ too late’ will be written 
upon some of their brows in death. Shame that 
old and gray-headed men, fathers of brave, bright 
boys and lovely daughters, whose children should 
look up to them in reverence^ should lead them on ; 
and not only to the wine-cup, but to the gambler’s 
den. God pity such a people and such a country ! 
I have never witnessed a drunkard’s death, and 
hope that my eyes may be spared the sight, but 
what an awful thing it must be ! But it is no 
wonder that the youth of our country, our only 
promise for its future greatness, are being so 
rapidly led astray, when day after day, and night 


6o 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


after night, they are allowed either to read the 
works or sit under the voice of such a man as 
Robert Ingersoll.” 

“ Bob Ingersoll ! Why, my dear madam,” said 
an old gentleman who just then entered the room, 
“ he is a smart man ; it is a treat to hear him,” 

“ Why, general ! an old man like you, and one 
with so much intelligence, speaking in terms of 
praise of such a man as Robert Ingersoll ! Where 
are your boys ?” 

“ In New York now, madam, listening one night 
in every week to his lectures.” 

” Go to them now',' said the old lady, solemnly, 
“ and take them away, as a loving mother would 
snatch her innocent babe from the fierce heat of a 
flaming furnace, ere she sees its little face blackened, 
its tender form seared and burned to death by the 
fire; nay, you had better be quicker, for with death 
its sufferings would cease, and the innocent babe 
would soon be in our Saviour’s loving care; but 
what will be their end with such an influence 
thrown around them ? — a sophistry which tends 
to make a man utterly reckless of what he says 
or does in this world. What kind of law-makers 
will such boys make when they grow to be men ? 
It is not the mind of the steadfast Christian which 
he can influence or injure, for in the heart of any 
true Christian there are feelings and experiences 
which are positive proofs of the truth of the 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


6l 


Scriptures, which Mr. Ingersoll can no more ex- 
plain or understand than he can the mysteries of 
the Bible, which was written by the hands of men 
inspired by the great omnipotent God, whose 
knowledge and power are infinite; and how can 
a finite mind understand the fathomless depth of 
the infinite ? We must obey the Scriptures and 
have faith as a little child. How can the thing 
which is created know as much as its creator? 
Does a child know as much as its father? Yet 
how trustingly it will be led by its father’s hand ! 
And just as a loving father will watch over and 
protect and support his child, will our Heavenly 
Father watch over and protect His children if 
they will only love and trust Him. It is the 
unformed minds of the young who have had no 
moral or religious training which such writers as 
Ingersoll can influence and injure, whose souls he 
can blacken, as his doctrine teaches utter reckless- 
ness and indifference to everything except the 
gratification of the present hour. Wait and watch 
when the death-hour comes to Robert Ingersoll, 
and see what an end his will be, unless the angel 
of repentance comes to him ere it is too late to 
save a soul which for years has been sowing seeds 
of sorrow and sin broadcast over this fair and 
beautiful land. We have only to look around us 
for a short, a very short while to see some of the 
results. Ah ! it may do to listen to the voice of 
6 


62 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


an infidel while we live, while the flush of health 
is on our cheeks and its brightness in our eyes, 
while the bright sun of happiness and prosperity 
shines upon us in all its cloudless beauty; but 
when disease and sin and suffering have stolen 
that flush from our cheeks, that brightness from 
our eyes, that warmth and glow from our hearts, 
when old age and sorrow and death come creep- 
ing upon us hand in hand, — will it do to lean on 
an infidel then ? Where, oh ! where can we go 
for comfort and peace and rest but to a loving and 
merciful God, who can make the darkness to us 
as light, the night to us as day, take all the sin 
and suffering and sadness out of our hearts and 
give us in return only love and peace and joy! 
Then beware I oh, beware ! men and women of 
this beautiful land, how you allow your innocent 
children to read the works or listen to the voice 
of a man who will lead them on step by step to 
the very brink of destruction and eternal woe. 
Beware I or the day may come when, looking in 
their dying faces, from which all the brightness 
and joy have fled, you may hear their faint voices 
whisper in reproachful anguish, ‘ Too late ! father, 
mother, why didn’t you show us the way ?’ Teach 
them how to live, throw the right influences 
around them ; and, when the hour arrives which 
is coming nearer and nearer to us all every day, 
they will know how to meet it. Teach them how 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


63 


to live and they will know how to die. Teach 
them, by precept and example, the beautiful re- 
ligion of the Lord Jesus Christ, which teaches 
forgiveness and love and sweet and gentle mercy. 
Can anything better or nobler or purer be taught 
than that ? Can a better guide through life, a 
sweeter comfort in death, be found than that ? 
And when the temptations of this world, some- 
times beautiful and alluring in their appearance, 
sometimes as black as Egyptian darkness, come 
surging down upon them, they will be safe, for 
they can lean upon the Rock of Ages. 

“ Oh ! the winds may howl, 

And the storms may rage around us ; 

But if the love of God is in our hearts, 

We are safe, they cannot harm us.” 


“ Ah ! my dear madam,” said the general, ap- 
proaching the old lady, and raising her hand with 
reverence to his lips, “ I am reproved, and thank 
you for the lesson. To-morrow I start for New 
York after my boys. If more of the women of 
this land would act as you have to-day, ours would 
indeed be a better country.” 

That evening, as the young ladies were seated 
around a cosey fire in the parlor, Edith Grey re- 
marked, “ The scene which we witnessed in the 
forest to-day reminds me of one I saw in Natchez 
not long ago. I was there for only a short while. 


64 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


and went out walking with a young lady to see 
the bluffs, the pride of the city, which I had heard 
of from my childhood, but had never had time to 
stop and look at, although I had passed through 
there several times, and had formed my own idea 
of their exquisite beauty. But about the time we 
reached them, all covered with dust, with which 
the very air was thick, the first sight which greeted 
my eyes was a scene of cool and brutal cruelty. 
They were hauling cotton up the long hill from 
the landing ; all of their teams were loaded heavily ; 
but 07te poor little, thin, and pitiful-looking mule 
was hitched to a heavy dray, with two large bales 
of cotton upon it, driven by a stout negro man. 
Poor little thing ! I forgot all about the beautiful 
bluffs — the scenes of so much romance, the place 
where so many low sweet words had been spoken 
beneath the soft light of the moon — in watching 
the struggles of that poor little mule as it willingly 
strained every nerve and muscle in its poor, hungry 
little body to get that cotton up the long hill. 
Every few seconds it would stop, and then go 
on again, not from stubbornness, — I could see that 
very plainly, — but because it could not possibly 
go on. And the driver seemed to know it, for he 
did not strike the poor thing one blow ; if he had, 
I don’t think I could have stood it ; forgetting that 
I was a lady and a stranger, I think I should have 
screamed at him to stop. If there are any societies 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 65 

for the prevention of cruelty to poor, innocent, 
helpless, and defenceless animals in this land, 
surely there is plenty of work for them to do. 
Shame that such scenes of heartless cruelty should 
ever be enacted in any civilized community! I do 
not think it possible that that pitiful-looking animal 
could have stood many more such strains as that ; 
I presume it has laid down its tired little body in 
its stall and died long before this, unless its heart 
bursted in pulling another heavy load up that long 
hill. I can see it now,” she said, with a shudder. 
“ But let’s talk about something else ; I don’t like 
to think of it, particularly as I can do nothing to 
help the matter.” 

“You are right, dear,” said Violet, kindly. “I 
should have felt just as you did about it. But 
come, let us go in the parlor and have some 
music.” 

“ What a speech about a mule I” sneered Agnes, 
as they all left the room. 

Just then Mrs. North entered. She had been 
sitting in the room adjoining, and as the door 
between the two rooms had been left ajar, chanced 
to overhear a good deal of the conversation which 
had just taken place, also Agnes Drew’s sneering 
comment. 

“ Why, Agnes,” said the old lady, reprovingly, 
“ I am surprised at you ; I thought you had more 
kindness of heart. They are God’s creatures as 
6 * 


66 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


well as we, and, though not intellectual beings, 
their very helplessness should appeal the more 
strongly to our sympathy. Have you never heard 
it said that a brave man is rarely ever cruel ? You 
generally find that trait of character developed 
conspicuously in the coward. He can impose 
upon the helpless and weak, some one or some- 
thing which is in his power; but once bring him 
face to face with his equal in strength and he will 
sneak away in the dark like the coward that he is. 
My child, I was sorry to hear you express your- 
self as you did just now,” continued the old lady, 
kindly, laying her hand on the girl’s averted head. 
“ You had better go and dress now; it will soon be 
time for dinner.” 

“ Old simpleton !” sneered Agnes, as she left the 
room. “ I wonder what she thinks I care for her 
opinion; only I am sorry if I shocked her tender 
sensibilities, for my own interest if for nothing 
else. But I must go and dress or I will be late, 
as she kindly said, and I look like a fright now,” 
pausing and glancing in a mirror opposite. 

She had regular, rather handsome, features, but 
had yet to learn that often the face is an index to 
the soul, and that one does not become handsomer 
by cultivating all that is evil in the heart. How 
many plain faces become absolutely beautiful by 
the light of a radiant soul shining out in the ex- 
pression ! Let the professional beauty stand for 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


67 


hours before her mirror, adding every ornament to 
her attire which wealth can give, and, if she has a 
wicked, heartless nature burning within, it will 
show itself in time, in spite of it all. 


CHAPTER IX. 

“ Girls,” said Ida Lee, as they were out walking, 
while the gentlemen were off on a hunt, “yonder 
come Mrs, Meddle and Miss Pry on their way to 
the village ; one can tell by the very switch of 
their dresses that they are bent on finding out some- 
body else’s business. Look at that important 
shake of the head, will you ? Here, let’s get be- 
hind these bushes until they pass. I look awfully 
shabby with this big hole torn in my dress, and 
my hair pulled all to pieces ; that’s what I get for 
crawling through the bushes and climbing per- 
simmon-trees for the benefit of the rest of you ; 
the next time, Agnes, you will have it to do.” 

“Thank you. Miss Lee,” said Agnes, on her 
dignity, while the others laughed ; “ of course I 
expect to do anything which you tell me.” 

“ Why, of course,” said Ida. “ But here they 
come. Now, run, as I don’t wish to hear to-mor- 
row, when we go to church, that Ida Lee was out 
yesterday evening looking like a regular hoosier. 
Rtin, I tell you, or they’ll see us.” 


68 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


Obedient to her command, they all concealed 
themselves just in time. 

“ But, girls,” she continued, after the ladies had 
passed, “ do you know that gentlemen gossip as 
well as ladies? I used to think that a man, at 
least one worthy of the name, was above all such 
littleness ; but have found out, since I have been 
old enough to have some knowledge of human 
nature, that even man, the grandest of all created 
beings, will gossip sometimes ; though, of course, 
there are exceptions to all rules, and they are the 
ones which I cannot help admiring. I think 
justice should be done to all; and that our sex, as 
full of faults as we are, should not get all the 
credit of a thing so small.” 

“Does the Professor ever gossip, Ida?” said 
Stella, with a mischievous glance in her dark eyes, 

“Not that I know of; you’d better ask him 
when he comes in from the hunt,” she answered, 
coloring uneasily. “ What made you ask me that? 
Did you ever hear him?” 

“ Oh, no, / never did, but thought perhaps yon 
might.” 

“ Indeed,” said Edith, laughing, “ I think he 
is above that, though he zvas a little hard on us 
sometimes. Let’s do him justice.” 

“ Ah, me !” said Ida, ruefully, “ if it was only 
justice, and not mercy, — sweet and gentle mercy, 
— which we would all receive when we have to 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 69 

die, I am afraid that a great many of us would be 
in a bad fix. I would, at any rate. Girls, some- 
times I think I am very bad ; don’t you ?” 

After a pause one of them answered, “You 
have a good little heart, Ida, and your badness is 
all on the outside." 

“Thank you, dear; I know you think that, or 
you would not say it; but that don’t make it so,” 
she answered, as she stooped to gather a bunch of 
what she thought was the crimson Virginia creeper, 
to fasten in her hair. 

“ Why, Miss Ida !” said Violet, snatching it out 
of the girl’s hair and throwing it away; "that is 
poisoti oaky 

“Thank you, you dear little thing,” said Ida; 
“but didn’t you know that you might poison your 
own hand in catching hold of it ?” 

“ Oh, I never thought of that,” answered Violet, 
carelessly ; “ I don’t suppose it will ; I used to be 
in the woods so much when at home that I learned 
a good deal about the wild flowers which grew 
there in great abundance.” 

“ What sort of a home did you have, dear ?’’ 
said Ida, passing her arm affectionately around 
the girl’s waist. 

“ Oh, it was a beautiful little cottage,” interrupted 
Edith, kindly, as she saw all of the sunshine die 
out of the sweet young face. “ I rode by there on 
horseback one day, and thought it was the loveliest 


70 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


spot that I had ever seen. Come over here, Ida ; 
I have found a grape-tree at last. Now, who will 
climb this tree ?” 

“ It’s not my turn,” said Ida, “ but I will ; so 
here goes !” In a few minutes she had scrambled 
up almost into the top of the tree. “ Now you girls 
catch the bunches of grapes in your laps while I 
throw them down.” 

” Not I,” said Agnes, “ and ruin my dress.” 

“Very well, miss, I don’t want you to; but I 
bet you’ll eat some.” 

“ Why, Ida Lee !” said Miss Pry, who just then 
came around the bushes, “ what are you doing up 
there? You are the biggest tomboy that I ever 
saw in my life.” 

“You go away!” snapped Ida; “it’s none of 
your business if I am. How did you know that 
we were here, I should like to know ? ‘ Oh, I 

dropped my snuff-box,’” said Ida, maliciously. 

“No, my handkerchief. Miss Lee; I don’t dip; 
who told you that I did ?” 

“ Oh, nobody,” said the girl, laughing, “ only I 
thought you might.” 

“ I came for my handkerchief, and, hearing the 
sound of your voices, just came around here.” 

“ To find out what mischief those girls were up 
to, now didn’t you. Miss Pry?” 

“ Good-evening, young ladies,” was all the answer 
vouchsafed, as she turned away, with an offended air. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


71 


“ Be sure and tell Mrs. Meddle,” screamed Ida, 
as she tried to disentangle her hair from a small 
limb in which it had caught. 

“ I am afraid, Ida, that you were a little hard on 
poor Miss Pry,” said Stella, gently. 

“ I am afraid I was,” answered Ida, a swift shadow 
passing over her bright face. ” But she made me 
mad ; she is so envious. Besides, I ought to have 
remembered one thing,” she said, solemnly. 

"And what is that?” said the others, as she 
paused. 

“ That her name is Pry, and, if she’s named Pry, 
how can she help prying? Now, I should like to 
know what you girls are laughing at. Here I 
have been thinking of mending my ways, and 
sending her a basket of these nice grapes, and you 
are laughing at me. Seriously, girls, do you think 
she would accept them ?” 

“ I expect so, if you will write her a note asking 
her pardon for your rudeness,” answered Agnes. 

” I would do no such thing,” said Stella, indig- 
nantly ; ” she said the first rude thing to you.” 

” But I am younger than she is,” said Ida. 

“ Just send them to-morrow, with a polite note, 
and that will be sufficient.” 

“ All right,” said Ida ; ” I’ll do it.” 

But before that to-morrow came she was so 
scratched and scarred up that she forgot all 
about it. 


72 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“Oh, Miss Ida!” screamed Maude, running up 
just then, almost out of breath, “come down 
quick, yonder comes the Professor.” 

“What did you holla so for, you little goose? 
Now, girls, I am caught in a fix. What am I to 
do? My dress is torn nearly off the waist.” 

“Why, just stay up there until he goes by,” 
said Maude, — “ he won’t see you, — while we walk 
on a little way.” So they all went on. “ We will 
wait for you at the persimmon-tree.” 

Just as the girls got out of sight, the Professor 
rode up, with a gun on his shoulder. 

“ Why, there’s a bird,” he said, raising his 
gun. 

“ Oh, don’t shoot me 1” screamed a voice from 
the tree. 

“ What’s that ?” said the Professor, with such a 
start that he came near losing his seat in the sad- 
dle, while his horse reared and plunged violently 
to one side, shaking in every limb. 

“ It’s me ; please don’t shoot.” 

“ Is that you. Miss Ida ?” he said, as he at last 
got his horse under some control. “ Why, what 
are you doing up there ? It’s a good thing you 
spoke, for I was just about to shoot. What a 
pretty bird it is! You made me miss a good 
shot. Miss Ida,” he continued, as the little thing 
flew away. 

“ Can’t you shoot a bird on the wing ?” said Ida. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


73 


“ Well, I can try,” he answered, carelessly, rais- 
ing his gun, and in a second the little thing lay 
on the ground quivering with its last breath. 

“ Poor little thing !” said Ida. “ How cruel and 
careless you gentlemen are ! it was too pretty and 
innocent to kill.” 

“Why, didn’t you tell me to shoot?” he asked, 
in surprise. “ How consistent you ladies are !” 

“ Well, I didn’t think you could hit it that far. 
But I don’t think you would have cared much if 
you’d shot ine\ How did you know, when you 
fired that gun, that the noise wouldn’t frighten me 
so that I might fall out of this tree ?” 

“ Because you have some nerve. I knew you too 
well. Miss Ida, to ever think such a thing of the 
biggest tomboy that used to be in my school.” 

“ You and old Miss Pry ought to get married,” 
said Ida. “Just ride on a few steps and you will 
overtake her. She just now called me the same 
thing, and you two would make a splendid match. 
Go on, I say ; I don’t want to sit up in this tree 
all day. Where did you come from, anyway ?” 
she continued, as he did not move an inch. “ I 
thought you were out hunting with the other 
gentlemen.” 

“ Oh, I just came on a little ahead of the others. 
Miss Ida, you have no idea how very interesting 
you look, sitting up there.” 

“ Go away, please,” said Ida. 

7 


74 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“Well, suppose I don’t, what will you do then ?’’ 

“Just stay here.’’ And she sat there for some 
time without saying a word. 

“ I’ve heard it said that it would kill a woman • 
if she could not talk, but I believe I have found 
one who can hold her tongue if she pleases.’’ 

“ Wo women can do a great many things which 
you lords of creation think we can’t. I wish you 
would go away from there; it is nearly dinner- 
time, and I’m just as hungry as I can be; the 
girls are all waiting for me under the big persim- 
mon-tree.’’ 

“ But how are you going to get down ?’’ he 
said, laughing. “ I don’t see how you ever got 
up there, anyway.” 

“ Why I just climbed ; besides, it’s none of your 
business. I know you are longing to box my 
ears, but you can’t reach me, even if you wanted 
to.” 

“ Did I ever box them when you were at 
school ?” 

“ No, but you wanted to, all the same.” 

“ Perhaps you will think that I am presump- 
tuous, Miss Ida, now that I no longer have any 
authority over you, but I hate to hear a young 
lady who used to be a pupil of mine using slang. ” 

“Well, you have taken the authority, anyway; 
but I will forgive you, and promise not to use any 
more slang — that is, for a long time — if you will 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 75 

only go away, and let me get down out of this 
tree.” 

“But, seriously. Miss Ida, I don’t see how 
you can ; it looks rather dangerous for a lady, 
to say the least. Can’t I assist you in some 
way ?” 

“ No, I think not,” she answered ; “ if I got up, 
surely I can get down. If I were a timid girl 
you might frighten me ; don’t you know a woman 
better than to attempt to frighten her when she is 
in a close place ?” 

“ I know very well the metal of which you are 
made; I did not teach you four years without 
gaining some knowledge of your character.” 

Just as he is about to ride away, he hears a 
startled scream, and, looking up, sees the girl 
falling from the tree, the rough branches scratch- 
ing her face and tearing her dress to shreds as 
she falls. An instant, and he is off of his horse, 
with the girl in his arms. “ My darling, are you 
hurt?” But he receives no answer until he takes 
her to a stream of water which ripples near, and, 
as he washes the blood from her face, conscious- 
ness is restored.” 

“ It was all my fault : will you ever forgive me ? 
Ida,” he continued, as she hid her face on his 
shoulder, “ I have loved you ever since you were 
my little school-girl. Will you ever forgive me, 
and try to love me just a little in return ?” 


76 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“It was not your fault,” she stammered; “a 
great, black snake crawled down on a limb, and, 
when I felt the cold, slimy thing touch my arm, I 
must have fainted, for I knew no more until I felt 
the cool water on my face.” 

“ Did it bite you, darling ?” he asked, anxiously 
examining the bare arm, from which the sleeve 
was torn. 

“ No,” she answered, with a shudder; “but just 
suppose it had !” clinging unconsciously a little 
closer to her companion. 

“ It was all my fault for keeping you there so 
long,” he said, his voice full of self-reproach. 

“ Don’t say any more about it, please,” she 
answered, faintly. “ Take me to the house quick : 
I am getting sick again.” 

And so he lifts the slight form in his arms, and 
carries the fainting girl to the house, much to the 
surprise and terror of the inmates, and then goes 
as fast as he can ride for the nearest physician, 
who, after a careful examination, says, with a grave 
face, “Her injuries are not dangerous, but the 
young lady will have to stay in bed for over a 
week, as fever may set in ;” which Ida says flatly 
she will not do, after he has given her a small 
powder and taken his departure, with the words, 
“ If she become restless, Mrs. North, in an hour 
give her another one of these powders. I will be 
around again in the morning. By the way, she 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. // 

can have some ice if she wants it any time during 
the night.” 

” He needn’t think he’s going to keep, me in bed 
and make me take his horrid medicines all that 
time. But I ought not to say that, for he was so 
kind and gentle.” 

Sure enough, by twelve o’clock that night fever 
did set in ; and it was many days before she was able 
to be carried down-stairs, looking much the worse 
for her rather rough experience in the forest. 
Miss Pry came to see her during her illness, and 
was so gentle and thoughtful, helping to lift and 
soothe the feverish girl, who could not move with- 
out suffering intense pain, that one day Ida threw 
her arms around the old lady’s neck, and, bursting 
into tears, begged her pardon for her rudeness on 
the day of the accident. “ Indeed I don’t deserve 
such kindness from you, dear Miss Pry.” 

“Hush!” that lady answers; “it was my fault. 
So don’t say a word ; it will make your fever higher 
if you cry.” And, going over to the table, she 
makes a glass of ice-cold lemonade and, tenderly 
raising the girl’s aching head, holds it to her hot 
lips. As she eagerly drains the last drop, the old 
lady lays her gently down on her pillow, and says 
decidedly but kindly, “ No more now, dear. Just 
shut your eyes and go to sleep.” 

Indeed, after her ministrations there is so little 
left to be done for the invalid that the girls, who 

7 ^^ 


78 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


are all anxious to nurse their companion, become 
a little jealous. 

“ My darling, will you ever forgive and try to 
love me just a little?” the Professor says, as he 
sits near the for once softened and womanly girl, 
on a sofa in the drawing-room, some two weeks 
after the accident, the soft southern moonlight 
stealing in at the window and flooding with its 
silver light the whole room as well as the half- 
averted face of the girl at his side. 

” I wish it were not so, but I am afraid I won’t 
have to try very hard,” she answers, ruefully. 

“Never mind, dearest; when you are my wife, I 
will see that you don’t climb any more trees, though 
I must confess that I can’t help liking that old 
tree.” 

“Yes, I might know that the very first thing 
you’d be thinking of would be to make me mind, 
and I’ll tell you right now that I don’t intend to 
mind you one bit. The very first time you begin 
to talk about such a thing. I’ll be out of the win- 
dow and away.” 

“ And get another fall,” he answers, laughing ; 
“and maybe you’d not be so fortunate another 
time.” 

“ Would you want me to ?” she says, looking up 
in his face, with her bright eyes full of an unuttered 
reproach. 

“ Never, my darling,” he answers, drawing the 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


79 


slight form nearer to his side. “ But my little Ida 
forgets,” he continues, gently, ‘‘that one as im- 
pulsive and headstrong as she is needs a guardian.” 

“ But don’t talk about minding,” she exclaims, 
quickly, “ for naturally I never did like to mind 
anybody, and you needn’t think I’m going to begin 
now.” 

“ Indeed,” he answers, as he stops the saucy little 
mouth with a kiss and detains her in spite of her 
attempts to leave the room, “ I don’t see what it 
was that saved you unless it was a merciful Provi- 
dence ; your dress catching on the branches must 
have broken the violence of your fall, or it most 
undoubtedly would have killed you.” 

“ Oh, girls,” said poor little Ida, after limping up 
to their room that night, “what do you think?” 

“ I don’t know,” answered Edith, as Ida threw 
her arms around her neck and buried her face on 
her shoulder, “ unless it is something about — but 
I won’t guess ; tell us.” 

“ I know you won’t believe it ; but the Professor 
and I are to be married next fall.” 

“ You dear old girl !” they answered, kissing the 
blushing face, “we believed it all along; and are 
so glad, for, if he did scold us sometimes, he is 
worthy of our little Ida.” 

“ It all came of my climbing that tree,” she 
answered. “But I’ll tell you right now that I 
don’t intend to mind him, — that is, all the time. 


8o 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


Good-night.” And she went to her room, — 
but not to sleep. “ I declare,” she said, looking in 
the mirror at her scratched-up face, “ if I am not 
the ugliest thing ! it’s a wonder that the Professor 
cares anything at all for me.” 

The next evening, as she told him so, he took 
the poor, little, scratched-up face into the shelter 
of his great strong arms, and murmured fondly, as 
he covered it with kisses, “ This dear little face is 
worth more than all the world to me ; and not 
only that, but the brave and true little heart which 
accompanies it.” 

“ What became of your horse and gun that 
day?” she asked, as she drew away to the 
other end of the sofa. 

” Indeed, I can hardly tell you that myself ; but 
I think the horse was found by the groom, and 
Maude North found my gun just where I had 
thrown it, and brought it to the house herself; the 
lock was broken ; I suppose I must have thrown 
it against a log rather hard, as she found it lying 
across one; it is a good thing the gun was not 
loaded. Now, miss, you have cost me a broken 
lock, what are you going to do about it ?” 

“ I don’t know ; as you came so near costing me 
a broken head, I think we are about quits.” 

“ My little school-girl,” he said, bending over 
her fondly. 

“ I wish she’d broken her neck when she fell out 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


8l 


of that tree,” said Agnes Drew, angrily, to herself, 
one day not long after the accident, as she hurried 
on from her morning walk to the house a little be- 
fore her companions, having become offended at 
one of Ida’s jokes. “The little wretch! she’s 
ahvays tormenting me. No, I would not be so 
wicked as to wish anything so dreadful as that to 
happen to her ; for, after all, I like her better than 
that despicable Violet Lysle, whose fair white face 
is stealing from me the only heart in the world 
that I ever cared to win. I wish she’d get that 
lovely face of hers scratched all to pieces, and 
spoil its fatal beauty forever; yes, fatal to me. But 
we’ll see, we’ll see who’ll come out best in the end,” 
she continued, grinding her teeth savagely, with one 
of the blackest, most diabolical looks that was ever 
seen on a woman’s face. “ I hate her ; I hate her I” 

Just then, blinded by rage and passion, she 
stepped into a hole just before her, and over she 
went into the centre of a brier-bush ; and when 
Maude, who was coming along close behind, pulled 
her out, she exclaimed, “ Oh, Miss Agnes, you’ve 
got the biggest scratch just across the end of your 
nose.” 

“ Yes, and it hurts like fury. Why didn’t you 
tell me that hole was there ?” 

“ Why, where are your eyes ?” said Maude, 
laughing ; “ how was / to know that you were 
going to walk into such a place ?” 


82 


CLOUDS and sunshine. 


“ Well, you needn’t laugh so,” answered Agnes, 
spitefully, as she covered her face with a thick veil 
and hurried on to the house. 

“And that’s the thanks I get for helping her 
out !” said the child. “ Well, I can’t say that I 
am sorry much, for she’s so mean ; she needn’t 
think that I did not hear part of what she was say- 
ing when she walked into that hole, like a blind 
turkey.” 

When Agnes arrived at the house, poor Violet, 
who had remained at home that morning on ac- 
count of a severe headache, was the first one to 
come to her relief, with a box of rose salve. 

“ Here, Miss Agnes, this will heal it without a 
scar.” 

“ The mean, deceitful thing !” said Maude, as 
Agnes took the salve from the sick girPs hand and 
went to her room ; “ if Violet only knew how she 
hated her, she’d never be so good to her.” 

“ How is your head now, dear?” said Stella, as 
she entered a few minutes later, passing her cool 
hand gently over the girl’s throbbing brow. 

“ It is not much better, thank you,” answered 
Violet ; “ your hand feels so cool, just hold it there 
a little while, won’t you ?” 

“Yes, dear,” said Stella, taking a seat on the 
side of the bed, and passing one hand after the 
other across the girl’s aching brow. “ I used to 
cure auntie’s head this way.” And in a few min- 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


83 


utes Violet was in a sweet sleep. “ Poor child !” 
Stella said, as she closed the door softly and went 
across the hall to her own and Edith’s room. 

“ I did not know that she was suffering so, or I 
would not have gone off and left her this morn- 
ing.” 

” Neither did I,” said Maude, who had followed ; 
“but it’s just like Violet; she never complains un- 
less she is very sick. She was better, but she got 
up to wait upon that selfish Miss Agnes, who came 
in with a scratch on her nose.” 

“ Girls, won’t you loan me the pecan-crackers 
for a little while?” said Ida, one evening, as they 
were all seated on a log in the beautiful forest 
now glowing with autumn’s gorgeous hues. “ I’ve 
been cracking them so long with this old brick 
that my hands are a sight, and I’ve mashed my 
finger black and blue. Ah, me! how it hurts!” 
she said, putting it in her mouth and blowing it 
with all her might. 

“Certainly,” replied Edith. “You poor child ! 
why didn’t you ask for them before ? You are the 
greatest girl to get hurt that I ever saw.” 

“ Do you know the reason ?” said Violet; “it is 
because she is so unselfish. Ida never spares her- 
self where the comfort and convenience of others 
is concerned.” 

“ What a beautiful, what a lovely thing is an un- 
selfish disposition !” said Stella, musingly. 


84 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“Now both of you just hush,” said Ida. “I 
know you mean it, but don’t say any more, for I’m 
not as good as you think I am. Oh, how my finger 
hurts !” 

“ Here,” said Maude, running up with a leaf full 
of water which she had dipped from the little 
stream which was running near, and by doubling 
it up in her hand formed a sort of cup, “ put your 
finger in this cool water, and it will feel better.” 

“ It does feel better,” she answered, after holding 
it there for a while ; “ thank you, Maude, that will 
do and, wrapping it in her handkerchief, she is 
soon laughing and chatting as gayly as ever. 

“ Speaking of the difference there is between 
city and country girls,” said Ida, one day, “ I heard 
a young lady from one of our cities, with more airs 
than brains and more finery than good-breeding, 
ridiculing country manners, when she was right 
then violating one of the commonest rules of po- 
liteness, as I chanced to be from the country my- 
self, and she knew it. I just felt like getting up 
and making her a little speech, but I didn’t.” 

“ And why didn’t you ?” they asked. 

“ Well, that was one time when I held the reins 
over my temper, and it was the very time that I 
should have let it go wild. City polish may do 
very well, especially as that was such a fair speci- 
men of it; but country polish is, in my humble 
opinion, much better. Country people are truer to 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 85 

nature ; their polish or politeness is, as a general 
rule, real all the way through to the heart, not just 
a little varnish on the outside to cover up the 
roughness within.” 

“ She surely did not know much of the country, 
or she would never have spoken so lightly of it,” 
said Edith, “ for you will not find more real ele- 
gance and true refinement anywhere than in some 
of our country homes.” 

“ But she was not a fair specimen of a city lady,” 
said Ida, “ for I’ve met some with hearts as warm 
and true as any in the wide world who were born 
and raised there, and I honor and respect them 
as noble women; and I’ve heard of gentlemen 
from the city who were among the noblest in the 
land. But sometimes even your little village maid 
will turn up her nose and put on her village airs 
and call country people green. Why, I consider 
it an honor to be green. Green must be a favorite 
color with God, or why do we see so much of it 
around .us?” she said, pointing to the beautiful 
foliage which surrounded them, though it was now 
fast dying away in the many-tinted hues of autumn. 

“ Perhaps the lady thought, as my dress did not 
happen to be just in the style about that time, that 
she could say what she pleased in my presence, and 
I would not know any better ; also because I was 
from the country, — the beautiful country, which I 
love so well, with its sweet, pure air, grand old trees, 

8 


86 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


and lovely wild flowers planted by the hand of God 
himself. Why, I would not give one white rose for 
all of the style and splendor of any city, so far as real 
beauty and refinement go. Can the puny hand of 
that which is created excel the omnipotent hand of 
the great Creator? Speaking of style,” she con- 
tinued, laughing, “ why, you could dress that old 
black stump over yonder just in the style if you’d 
only give it a little shape. I wonder how many old, 
pithy human stumps there are walking about the 
world to-day, with no recommendation except their 
fine clothes ? . Oh, it’s all right, they think, in their 
complacent souls, if the outside appear well, 
though the inside be black as night.” 

“But God don’t judge that way, does he?” said 
Maude. 

“ No, darling,” answered Stella. “ God looks at 
the heart.” 

“Well,” said Agnes, after a silence of some 
length had elapsed, “ I don’t know what the rest 
of you think about it, but I must say that I like to 
be well dressed.” 

“ Certainly you are right about that ; it is the 
duty of every lady and gentleman to be neat, and 
as well dressed as their means will allow. What I 
objected to was placing one’s whole soul on dress ; 
it has a tendency to make the mind grow small, and 
there is one thing certain, though I love pretty 
things. I’d rather be out of style than in debt. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 87 

Come, girls, let’s go ; I’m so tired. I don’t know 
what the rest of you think about it, but I think, 
although it is so fascinating to see the pretty brown 
things lying on the ground just within reach, that 
pecan-hunting is the most tiresome work that I ever 
tried to do.” 

“ And I agree with you exactly on that point,” 
said Maude; “^(3 come along; don’t stop to pick 
up any more. I am so tired now that I can hardly 
walk. I expect we will all be sick to-morrow. 
Just leave the baskets here; mamma will send for 
them. I wonder what Aunt Tildy is going to have 
for supper; I’m awfully hungry.” 


CHAPTER X. 

The days roll on at Fleetwood, filling some hearts 
with sweet sunshine, while others are dark with 
the hopelessness of despair and doubt. Bright and 
beautiful Stella Hyde has met and is bravely bat- 
tling with the first sorrow which has ever touched 
her girlish heart. And little does the laughing 
crowd by whom he is surrounded dream of the 
fierce conflict which is taking place in the stern 
heart of their host, the struggle between love and 
conscience. Suspecting — almost knowing — the 


88 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


secret of his old school-mate, the friend of his boy- 
hood, Clarence Ogden, he has nobly resolved to 
give him the first opportunity of winning the young 
heart which makes all the sunshine of his life ; and 
his face grows haggard with the struggle, to stand 
idly by and see another win the sweet flower which 
he so longs to gather and wear in his own manly 
bosom ; for, as he eagerly scans the lovely face of 
Violet Lysle, he knows that her heart is the heart 
of a child, an unwritten page, pure and spotless as 
the snow, over which no hand has ever traced one 
faintest line, and little does he know whose will be 
the master hand which will one day write its image 
indelibly there. 

“ Ralph,” said his mother, one day, as he was 
making hurried preparations for a journey, “ what 
is the important business which is ever keeping 
you away from us ?” 

“ Oh, mother,” he answers, lightly, ” you must 
not expect to keep me always at your side.” 

But his face flushes with pleased surprise as he 
meets the reproachful glance of a pair of soft blue 
eyes not very far away. ” Violet, you have not 
missed me, have you ?” he says, going over to the 
window where she is sitting, with some light 
needle-work in her hands. 

“ I never said a word, did I ?” 

“ No, but your eyes did,” he says, eagerly, 
taking the work from her hands and possessing 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 89 

himself of both of them, as his mother is called 
from the room. 

“ Of course we have all missed you,” she an- 
swers, evasively. 

” I did not say all,” is the wilful reply. “ I 
asked if you missed me.” 

“ Why, of course I missed you, after seeing so 
much of you at first. Now, please let go my 
hands,” she says, with drooping eyes, her sweet 
face flushing and paling by turns. 

“ Look in my eyes and say it again, now, won’t 
you, darling ?” he says, eagerly. 

“ No, I wonH ; you hurt my hands.” And, ere 
he has time to release her, she snatches them from 
his grasp and hastily leaves the room. 

Ah, Violet, Violet, what means that beating 
heart, that blushing face? All the flowing elo- 
quence of handsome, talented Clarence Ogden has 
never brought a blush to thy cheek. 

“ I don’t know what it was that made me act 
such a simpleton,” said Ralph North, angrily, to 
himself, as he turned on his heel and, leaving the 
room, went out in the garden and threw himself 
recklessly on a rustic bench beneath the shade of 
a large oak-tree, “ unless it was those eyes ; why, 
I almost believe they could drive a man mad. 
But she’ll not have the opportunity of treating me 
in that manner again. But, even if she did get so 
angry, what meant that blushing face, those droop- 
8 * 


90 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


ing eyes? Oh, if I only dared to hope that she 
loved me, that her sweet young life would one 
day be given into my keeping, mine to have and 
to hold forever, and forever !” he muses, passion- 
ately, forgetting that there can be no forever in 
this world. “ But, O merciful Father !” he groans, 
as he is rudely awakened from his passionate 
dreaming, “help me to forget self; for, even if I 
dared think there was one shadow of hope for me, 
Clarence should have the first chance. Dear old 
fellow! he saved my life once at the imminent 
risk of his own ; and I told him, if it were ever in 
my power to repay him, I would gladly do so ; 
though the day that he wins the love of sweet 
Violet Lysle the sun of my happiness will go 
down forever. Dear old friend, you little know 
how much I love you ; though I would far rather 
you had left me alone to die that day than to have 
risked your own life to save mine, for death to me 
without the heart of the girl I love would be far 
sweeter than life.” 

The rustling of the autumn leaves reveals to 
him that footsteps are approaching. Listless and 
indifferent, he has not the curiosity to see who it 
is, but lies still, absorbed in his own thoughts, 
concealed by the heavy foliage of the oak. Pres- 
ently he is aroused by the sound of voices near. 

“ Stella, darling, don’t weep so bitterly. I know 
that it is your love for Ralph North which is 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 9 1 

killing you ; you need not deny it, for you can’t 
deceive me'* 

“ Hush, Edith,” she says, passionately, “ I will 
conquer it if it kills me,” is the proud answer ; “ but 
I must go away from here to do so. Now, Edith, 
you are the dearest friend I have in the world, 
but you must never allude to this subject again,” 

Utterly amazed, scarcely daring to move, my 
hero holds his breath until the two girls, passing 
very near him, continue their walk, “ Dear, noble 
girl !” he says, as the sound of their footsteps 
grows fainter in the distance ;” she is like a sister 
to me, I would not have her know that I had 
overheard this for anything in the world and, 
when they return, he is gone. 

“ Stella has a bad headache and requested me to 
ask you to excuse her, Mrs. North,” said Edith, at 
the dinner-table. 

” Certainly, poor child !” answered the hostess, 
kindly; “won’t she have something? A cup of 
tea might relieve her head.” 

“ No, thank you ; she says that she only wishes 
to be quiet.” 

Ah ! many times it is the heartache, not the 
headache. Had Edith Grey noticed the look of 
distress on the noble face of the host, she might 
have suspected why it was that the faint odor of 
cigar-smoke had been so perceptible in the garden 
an hour before. 


92 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


CHAPTER XI. 

“Violet,” said Maude to her cousin one day, 
“ we hardly ever see anything at all of Brother 
Ralph now ; I wonder what is the reason ?” 

“I don’t know, Maude,” was the quiet reply; 
“perhaps he is very much engaged by business 
matters now.” 

“ I don’t believe it,” said Maude ; “ it must be 
something else.” 

Violet says nothing more, but it is the same 
question which she has asked herself again and 
again for many days ; and her heart grows strangely 
cold and heavy as he passes her by again and 
again with only a few light words or a bow per- 
haps. How her young heart yearns for the old 
kindness and attention ! He had been very gentle 
and tender with the sad orphan, and was so still ; 
but there was a difference, and she felt it deeply. 
“ But why should it hurt me so ? a few months ago 
we were strangers, and now one look or tone of 
his can wound me. But, Cousin Ralph, you shall 
never know it; if you can be cold, / can be colder 
still. But why, oh, why did he bring me here,” 
she thought, passionately, “ if only to make me 


\ 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


93 


suffer ? In the dear old cottage home I was very- 
desolate, but there I at least had peace.” So, as 
the days rolls on, the breach widens. 

One day, to the utter astonishment of her nurse, 
she threw her arms around the old woman’s neck 
and, burying her face on that faithful bosom, 
sobbed bitterly. “Dear, dear nurse, let us go 
home, — back to the cottage.” 

“ My poor child ! my dear baby ! what is the 
matter ? ain’t they good to you here ?” 

“ Yes, yes,” she sobbed, “ but you are all I 
want, and I long for a sight of the dear old home, 
the woods and the flowers and the dear little birds ; 
I think they would know me now, dear nurse, for 
I loved them so.” 

“ Miss Violet, my dear child,” said the old 
woman, kindly, wiping the tears from the girl’s 
sweet face, “ don’t grieve so ; there are strange 
people at the cottage now, and it won’t do for you 
to go back there.” 

“ You love me, my faithful nurse, don't you ? 
Promise me that, whatever comes, your faithful 
heart will never change to your poor Violet.” 

“ Of course I will. Who has been cross to you ? 
Who would have the heart to be onkind to my 
baby, who never knew what it was to have a cross 
word spoken to her in her life ? Ain’t Mr. Ralph 
and Mrs. North and Miss Maude good to you ? 
Don’t they all love you ?” 


94 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ Oh, yes, yes ; but I want to see the dear old 
home once more.” 

“ Well,” said the old woman, coaxingly, “ I’ll 
ask Mr, Ralph to take us, if you’ll quit fretting.” 

“iVi?, no!" she said, passionately; “don’t tell 
him anything about it, and I’ll promise not to say 
any more to you.” 

“ But why can’t you, my child ? who can you 
go to in your trouble if you can’t come to me, to 
the one who took you from your mother’s arms ? 
Tell me what troubles you ? Has that tall miss 
wid de cold gray eyes been saying anything spite- 
ful to you ? I ain’t got no use for her, nohow.” 

“ Oh, no. Please don’t say any more now. 
There comes some one.” And, pulling her veil 
down over her tear-stained face, Violet hastened 
into the house, just as Ralph North came in sight. 

“ Who was that with you, just now, Anna ?” 

“ It was Miss Violet.” 

“ What made her hurry away so quickly ?” 

“ The poor child pines for her home, Mr. Ralph,” 
said the old woman, hastening away. To that 
fond and faithful heart Violet will ever be the 
sweet blue-eyed baby which once rested on her 
knee. 

That night, at the supper-table, he noticed that 
she scarcely touched the food on her plate ; and, 
as he watched the pale, sad face, with tender pity 
throbbing in his great heart, she raised her head 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


95 


and her eyes met his, and she knnv that his sym- 
pathy was hers, “ But, oh, what can this new pain 
mean ? What can it be about him which grieves 
me so ?” she thought, that night, as she buried her 
face in her pillow and sobbed herself to sleep. 

“ Dear Violet, my little blue-eyed darling ! if I 
might only take her to my heart and comfort her!” 
he said to himself, as, smoking one cigar after an- 
other, he paced the garden-walks until twelve 
o’clock that night. ” But it cannot be ; her love is 
not for me. This love, this love, what a torture it 
is ! would that I had never known it. Dear child, 
I hope her young heart will never know the agony 
which mine suffers to-night.” 

That night, waking from a troubled dream, some 
irresistible attraction drew the fair girl to her win- 
dow. In the garden below she could see a soli- 
tary light move slowly along the walk. “ What 
can it be?” she wondered. Some strange fascina- 
tion held her there until it disappeared below. Oh, 
wonderful power and mystery of love ! who can 
understand, who fathom thee, save the great and 
mighty Being who created thee ? Could it be 
that his spirit was calling unto hers, even though 
she were in sleep. 

“ Maude,” she whispered, as shivering she went 
back to bed, “there was a light in the garden just 
now; what do you think it was ?” 

“ Why, Violet, how cold you are I” said Maude, 


96 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


twining her arms around the shivering girl. “ You 
must have been dreaming. Now let us go to sleep, 
dear, won’t you ? now there’s a darling !” And 
soon the two girls were fast asleep, the brown hair 
mingling with the gold, and, as the soft moonlight 
stole gently in at the window, it never smiled upon 
a fairer, sweeter picture. 


CHAPTER XII. 

“ Miss Edith, come here,” said Maude North, 
who stood at a window looking out upon the 
handsome grounds in front of the house ; ” yonder 
comes my brother Ralph and that hateful Miss 
Drew. I’ll bet almost anything she asked him to 
go riding with her or he would not have gone. 
Now, isn’t she lovely, with that great red plume in 
her hat? She’d be right handsome if her expres- 
sion were not so disagreeable.” 

“ Maude,” said Edith, laughing, ” what a little 
critic you are !” 

“ Dear Miss Edith,” said the child, pulling the 
bright head downward and kissing the sweet laugh- 
ing mouth, ” I would not say such things about 
any of the rest of you ; but that Miss Drew is so 
ugly to me ; she doesn’t care a thing about any one 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


97 


in the world unless they are rich ; if we were poor, 
do you suppose she would come to see us? No, 
we would be too far below her aristocratic nose, — 
that is, in her estimation. It is a good thing that 
such people as she is think so much of themselves ; 
if they didn’t, they would be left far behind, now 
wouldn’t they ?” 

“You should not use slang phrases, dear,’’ said 
Edith, reprovingly, though she could not help 
sympathizing with all the wilful child said. 

“ But who is that coming up the lover’s walk ?' 
Why, if it isn’t Violet and Mr. Ogden ! I remem- 
ber now hearing him beg her to go walking with 
him this morning. Oh, isn’t he handsome ?’’ If my 
readers could once look into the fair face looking 
so eagerly from the window, they would not doubt 
for a moment that such was the opinion of pretty 
Edith Gray. 

“ Mr. Ogden,’’ said Maude, running up to the 
young man as he entered the room, “ Miss Edith 
thinks you are ever so handsome.’’ 

“ Does she, little one ?’’ he answered, laughing 
and patting her rosy cheek. 

“Why, Maude!” said Edith, with a deep blush, 
it was you who said so, and I never said a word.” 

“ Oh, but you looked it, though,” she answered, 
with sparkling eyes ; “ and that is better, ain’t it, 
Mr. Clarence ?” 

“ Maude, I am afraid you are a sad tease. If 
9 


98 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

you will go out Into the hall, you will find a 
box of French candy which I brought you this 
morning.” 

She leaves the room in search of the candy, but 
not quicker than Edith Gray. 

“ Of course it was only the child's mischief,” he 
said, laughing, to himself, ” but I wonder what 
made her blush so.” 

” Where is Violet ?” said Maude, as she came 
back to thank him for her candy. 

” Oh, I don’t know ; she went in to take off her 
hat, I suppose,” he answered, while a sudden cloud 
swept over his handsome face, for a moment driving 
away all of the brightness from his fine eyes. 

“ Ralph,” said a tall, distinguished-looking old 
gentleman, who had just arrived, to his nephew, 
” what beautiful girl is that coming up the walk 
with young Ogden?” 

” She is a distant relative of ours,” he answered, 
with a slight flush on his cheek, ” a Miss Lysle.” 

“ Lysle, Lysle? the Lysles of Huntingdon?” he 
said, meditatively. 

“ Yes.” 

“ Why, I knew her father years ago, and a 
nobler fellow never lived. What a lovely woman 
the daughter has grown to be ! My dear child,” 
he said, kindly, laying his hand on the golden 
head as he is presented to her by Ralph North a 
few minutes later, “ I am happy to meet you. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


99 


Your father and myself were school -boys to- 
gether, and he was the dearest friend I ever had 
in the world.” 

The tears rushed to her beautiful eyes as, raising 
his hand respectfully, she presses her lips upon it 
and hastily enters the house. 

“ Poor child !” he said, compassionately, brush- 
ing his hand across his cheek; ‘‘this world is a 
sorrowful place. It always hurts me to see the 
young suffer; it seems that they, at least, should 
always be happy. But what a look of patient suf- 
fering rests on that sweet young face ! Dear old 
friend ! your child shall be as a daughter to me.” 

“ Ralph,” he said to his nephew, a few hours 
later, ‘‘has Miss Hyde much of a history? She 
is certainly very interesting. I have been study- 
ing her face for the last half-hour, and, all bright 
and sparkling with animation as it is, when at rest 
a shadow of some secret sorrow rests upon it.” 
Had those keen gray eyes of his been raised to 
his listener’s face for one instant, Colonel Clifford 
might have noticed that his words brought a 
shadow there also ; but it so happened that he did 
not. 

“ My dear uncle, how long have you been study- 
ing human nature?” 

“ Long enough, my boy, to know that there are 
tragedies of the heart going on daily around us, 
nay, sometimes in our very midst, when we know 


lOO 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


nothing of it, particularly among women. Why, 
my dear Ralph, when you have studied women’s 
hearts as long as I have, you will learn that many 
a woman’s pride has broken her heart. Look at 
yonder lovely rose, with the dew still nestling 
amid its perfect leaves; what will it be after one 
winter’s frost has touched them with its chilling 
breath? Such, my dear young friend, is the tender 
heart of woman. We men may bear it better, for 
‘ man’s love is of man’s life a thing a part, ’tis 
woman’s whole existence ;’ but sometimes even 
the strong and mighty oak — man’s true emblem 
— will bend before the lightning’s blast.” 

” Surely you must take rather an exaggerated 
view of the subject, Uncle Claude, as yours is the 
language of a poet, and poets always exaggerate.” 

“ Nay, Ralph, poetry is not false : it is only truth 
clothed in beautiful language. If it is false, why 
do we find so much of it in the Scriptures ?” 

“ Ah, uncle, you have the better of me there,” 
said the young host, smiling faintly, as he remem- 
bered a certain conversation which he had over- 
heard only a few days before. 

Impulsively he quits his uncle’s side, and, cross- 
ing the room, seats himself by the side of the 
beautiful subject of their conversation, his heart 
filled with compassion and sympathy for the great 
sorrow which he knows is preying on her fresh 
young life. Painfully the beautiful color comes 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


lOI 


and goes in her cheek as she sits conversing with 
him, and the brave bright eyes droop beneath his 
gaze as he has never seen them droop before, 

“ Dear, noble girl,” he says to himself, as he walks 
the gallery half an hour later, “ I do love her, 
though it is as a sister, and, were it not that I 
love another who is as far from me as yonder pale 
cold star, I might — but no, I would not ; it would 
be an insult to offer her less than the love of a 
whole true heart.” Stopping as he passes near 
one of the windows, he stands back in the shadow, 
and watches the lovely face of Violet Lysle as she 
sits conversing with Clarence Ogden ; for fully five 
minutes he never once removes his eyes from her 
face, and all that time, though polite and attentive 
to all her companion says, never once does her 
expression or color change. Directly Colonel 
Clifford approaches and leans over the back of 
her chair; her pale face flushes and softens until 
she is surpassingly beautiful. How blest, how in- 
tensely happy will be the man whom she will one 
day crown with her love, when parental affection 
can so soften and beautify her face! Ah, Clarence, 
Clarence, dear old friend ! you will never win her 
heart. Ten minutes later Violet has sought the 
now vacant window, impelled by she knows not 
what ; and her soft cheek now leans in exactly the 
same spot where his hand had rested only a few 
short moments before. 


9 ' 


102 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

“ Miss Lysle, will you go with me for a ride on 
horseback in the morning ?” said Clarence Og- 
den, as the gay party in the drawing-room were 
about to separate for the night. 

“ Yes, we can go early enough to see the s.un 
rise. Some of the others are going, and we can 
accompany them.” 

Coming down-stairs early the next morning be- 
fore it was quite light, her foot caught in the long 
train of her riding-habit ; she sprained her ankle, 
and would have fallen, but a strong arm is stretched 
out in the darkness and catches her just in time to 
prevent ; it is so dark that she can hardly tell who 
it is. Lifting the slight form in his arms, Ralph 
North — for he it is — does not release her until he 
reaches the foot of the stair. 

” Thank you. Cousin Ralph,” she says, faintly, 
as he places her on her feet. 

Opening a window to let in the light, he sees 
that she is pale and trembling. “ Violet, what is 
the matter ?” he asks, anxiously ; “ are you faint ? 
Lean your head here on my shoulder until you 
feel better.” For just one instant it rests there; 
and then, with a great effort, she withdraws her- 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


103 


self from his firm support, and attempts to walk, 
when her ankle gave way, and she would have 
fallen again but for his outstretched arm. Lifting 
her again in his arms, he does not release her until 
he reaches the library and, placing her on a sofa, 
enters the dining-room which adjoins it and re- 
turns with a glass of wine, which he holds to her 
pale lips. She swallows a little, and gradually a 
little color returns to them. 

“Are you better now, darling?” says Ralph, 
anxiously bending over her, forgetful of all his 
stern resolves to be cold and distant. 

The old familiar tone is too much for Violet, and, 
burying her face on the arm of the sofa, she bursts 
into a perfect passion of tears. 

“ Violet, what is the matter ? have I said any- 
thing to wound you ? can I do anything for you ?” 

“ No,” she answers, between her sobs, “ it is 
nothing much, only my ankle pains me and my 
head aches.” 

Going into his own room, he gets a bottle of 
eau de Cologne, and, seating himself by the side of 
the sofa, with a gentle, soothing touch bathes her 
throbbing brow and temples until she grows a little 
more quiet, though every sob goes to his heart. 

“ Thank you, my head is better ; you can go 
now. Will you ask Mr. Ogden to excuse me?” 

“ Certainly, but I cannot leave you while you 
are suffering so much.” 


104 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

“ Oh, yes, you must ; indeed, my head is easier, 
and I will be better alone.” 

Very reluctantly he leaves the room, but pres- 
ently comes back with a pillow, and says, as he 
places it under her hfead, “ I will send my mother 
or Maude to you.” 

“ Thank you. Cousin Ralph, what a good nurse 
you are !” she says, looking up in his face with a 
faint smile ; “ I am better now, and would not 
have you disturb them so early for anything. 
Good-by.” 

But half an hour later he steals noiselessly 
back into the room. She is fast asleep, with her 
golden head resting on one bare white arm from 
which her sleeve has fallen back, the long, dark 
lashes fringing her soft cheek, now tinged with the 
faintest color of the rose. He bends over, long- 
ing to kiss the innocent lips, gently pushes back 
a stray ringlet which has fallen across her cheek, 
and, going out softly, closes the door behind him ; 
but comes back directly, with a soft, warm shawl, 
and, throwing it over the sleeping girl, leaves the 
room again. 

“What made you so late, Mr. North?” said 
Agnes Drew, with whom he had made an en- 
gagement the night before for this morning’s 
ride. 

“ There was something which detained me for a 
little while,” he answered, carelessly, though with 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 1 05 

a slight flush on his cheek. “ If we don’t hurry, 
we will hot get to the hill hi time to see the 
sun rise.” And, spurring his horse onward, Agnes 
is forced to follow, though she would much rather 
have gone at a slower gait, in order to have the 
pleasure of a tUe-a-tete with the handsome young 
host. 

” I always love to feel the fresh morning air cut- 
ting across my cheek when I ride in the morning ; 
don’t you. Miss Agnes?” 

“Yes,” she answered, though just then she was 
thinking of anything else than the morning air. 

“ There is a feeling of fresh and vivid life about 
it very different from that which we experience 
later in the day, especially in a climate like ours, 
which is rather enervating, to say the least of it ; 
and I’ll venture to say that one lives more in one 
hour — that is, more of life is concentrated in that 
space of time — in the early morning, than in five 
a little later in the day, for the weakening effects 
of our Southern clime begin to be felt rather early. 
The people of the North have the name of being 
more energetic than we Southerners, but let them 
spend a few seasons in our soft and sunny clime, 
and they would soon find that we of the sweet 
South have as much energy as they. But here 
are the others at last,” he said, reining up his 
horse. “ Did you ever see any one enjoy life with 
more zest than Miss Ida ? I think she is a perfect 


I06 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

representation of a wild, free, and happy life in the 
country ; she doesn’t look as though one cloud 
had ever crossed the fair horizon of her young 
life. Hold your horse, Miss Ida, or he will out- 
run all the rest of us.” 

“ No, he won’t,” she answered, reining him up 
so suddenly that any one but a fearless rider 
would have been thrown from the saddle. “ I 
have just beat Mr. Glenn a hundred yards, I know, 
and would rather wait now and see the sun rise. 
Yonder it is now,” she said, her bright face glow- 
ing with enthusiasm ; ” isn’t it beautiful ? See, it 
is driving all the clouds before it !” 

“ And such will be our lives,” said Stella to her 
companion, in a low voice, though it was a little 
tremulous, “ if spent as they should be ; all of the 
clouds, though they seem so dark to us now, will 
be driven away at last by the bright Sun of Right- 
eousness.” 

” Dear Stella,” answered Edith, “ I know that 
yours will.” 

“ Miss Lysle,” said Professor Ingraham that 
evening, "you don’t know what you missed by 
not going with us this morning; the sunrise 
was perfectly grand, and we had a splendid 
time.” 

" I fully intended going, but came very near 
falling down-stairs this morning, it was so dark, 
and afterwards had such a severe headache that I 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 10 / 

was compelled to stay at home,” she answered, 
with a faint blush.” 

“ I noticed that you were looking very pale this 
morning,” said Mrs. North, kindly; “these head- 
aches are far from pleasant.” 

“How is your head, little couz?” said young 
North, coming up later in the evening and leaning 
over the back of her chair. 

“ Better, thank you ; but I must again thank 
you for your thoughtful kindness this morning.” 

“ I will dispense with the thanks on one con- 
dition, and that is that you will tell me why you 
wept so passionately this morning.” 

“You know I had the headache,” evasively. 

“ But was it the headache which made you cry 
so ?” he said, with keen eyes watching her vary- 
ing color. 

“ Because, because'' she faltered, raising her deep 
blue eyes reproachfully for just one instant to the 
eager, handsome face bending over her, “ you spoke ' 
so kindly to me.” 

“ Am I not always kind ?” he answered, as the 
blue eyes drooped and the soft color came and went 
beneath his gaze. 

“ You used to be.” 

“ Am I not always ?” 

“Yes, you are to-night; but ” 

“ But what ?” he asked, eagerly. 

Just then Mr. Ogden came up. “ I say. Miss 


I08 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

Violet, this is the hour for our game of chess.” 
She received him with a smile so sweet, so winning, 
that, almost unconsciously to himself, Ralph North 
bowed coldly and moved away, and for the rest of 
the evening devoted himself almost exclusively to 
Stella Hyde. 

“Cruel, cruel!" said Edith to herself, “to pay 
her so much attention when he cares nothing at 
all for her; and I thought him so noble. Some- 
times I think that all men, even the very best of 
them, are grand flirts ; but none of them shall ever 
wring my heart, — I defy them all !” and her eyes 
flashed, 

“ Of what is my little friend thinking so fiercely ?” 
said Colonel Cliflbrd, drawing a chair near her 
own, with an amused smile. 

“ Shall I tell you ?” she answered, saucily. 

“ Of course I would not have asked you if I 
had not wished to know.” 

“ I am afraid you might become displeased with 
me were I to tell you.” 

“ Perhaps I can guess what it was,” he said, 
smiling; “shall I do so?” 

“ Yes, if you can.” 

“It was something not very flattering to the 
sterner sex, was it not ?” 

“ I’ll not tell you,” she answered, blushing. 

“Ah, Miss Edith, that is not fair; “you said I 
might guess.” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. IO9 

“ But I did not say that I would tell you,” she 
answered, quickly, 

“ Well, at any rate, your words and manner im- 
plied as much ; but perhaps I misunderstood you,” 
“ No, you did not, and I suppose I ought to tell 
you,” she answered, reluctantly, 

“ Never mind. Miss Edith, I will excuse you 
this time; it is not your fault that you have such 
an honest face. At any rate, I do not believe that 
you could flirt, you have such an honest heart,” 

, “ What has that to do with it, I would like to 
know ?” 

“ A great deal, I suspect,” 

.Not ten minutes later she said, “ Colonel Clif- 
ford, will you loan me your eyes for a day or two ?” 

“ Ah, Miss Edith,” he said, laughing, “ my 
question is answered, I will loan you my eyes on 
one condition, and that is that you will return the 
compliment, for yours are very pretty eyes,” 

“Ah, colonel,” she said, laughing, “your head 
is gray, but you have not forgotten how to flatter,” 
“ Indeed I was not flattering you. Miss Edith. I 
dare say young Ogden will agree with me ; won’t 
you ?” to the young man who is approaching. 

“ Oh, don’t ask him,” she said, earnestly, with' 
heightened color. 

“ What is it, colonel ?” he asked, 

“ Don’t you agree with me in saying that Miss 
Edith has pretty eyes ?” 

10 


I lO 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ Let me see them a moment,” he said, trying 
to get one glimpse at the lovely brown eyes which 
avoid his so sedulously. “ I agree with, you ex- 
actly, Colonel Clifford, although I rarely ever see 
Miss Edith’s eyes.” 

” I think,” said the colonel, mischievously, “ that 
she was defying our whole sex a few minutes ago, 
— that is, in her heart, for one has but to look for 
one instant into those clear and truthful eyes to see 
of what she is thinking. Ah, Miss Edith, I did not 
know that you had such an unflattering opinion of 
us poor unfortunates of the sterner sex.” 

“ I did not say what I thought of them. But I 
don’t care how good they are, none of them are 
exactly perfect.” 

“ Indeed you are right. Miss Edith.” 

” I did not say that there were no good ones, but one 
will get provoked at the best of them sometimes.” 

“Why, what is the matter?” said Mr. Ogden, in 
mock distress. “ Some one of us has been doing 
soriiething very wrong this evening; who is it. 
Miss Grey ? If it be myself, I will repent now in 
sackcloth and ashes.” 

“ Oh, it is not you,” she answered, laughing and 
blushing. 

“ Who is it, then, in the name of all that is 
lovely ?” with an admiring glance into the bright 
eyes, for once holding them spellbound by the 
power of his own magnetic gaze. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


Ill 


“I’m not going to tell you, so you can just go 
away and quit teasing me.’’ 

“Ah, Miss Edith, if you ladies only knew the 
power of your own loveliness, you would find that 
an easier command to give than to obey.’’ 

“ There is Colonel Clifford talking to Miss Agnes 
Drew. I wonder what he thinks of her,’’ she said, 
not noticing his last remark. 

“ It will not take him long to fathom her, for he 
is one of the closest observers, the best judges of 
human nature that I ever saw,’’ was the quiet reply. 

Just then Violet Lysle crosses the room. 

“ Isn’t Miss Lyle lovely?” 

“ She is very beautiful,” his eyes following every 
movement of the graceful form. 

Suddenly the bright face of Edith Grey grows 
very pale, as she rises and, making some slight ex- 
cuse, hastily leaves the room. He notices her 
deathly pallor, and, rising also, follows her and 
offers his arm. 

“ Mi.ss Edith, what is the matter? You are not 
going to faint, I hope. Let me get you some 
water,” leading her out into the cool and refreshing 
atmosphere of the dewy night. He does not leave 
her until she almost makes him go. 

“ Indeed, I am better now ; I think that the room 
was rather close, don’t you ?” 

“ I had not noticed it,” he answers, kindly. I 
am sorry that you will have to leave us so early ; 


1 12 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


good-night,” for an instant taking the little cold 
hands into his own. 

“ Edith,” says Stella, half an hour later, “ come 
to the window; the moon is rising; isn’t it beau- 
tiful ?” But she receives no answer. ” Why, dar- 
ling, what is the matter?” she says, twining her 
arm around her friend’s waist and pressing her lips 
to the girl’s flushed cheek, which she finds is wet 
with tears. 

“ Nothing, only — Stella, I don’t feel very happy 
to-night;” and the bright brown head hides itself 
for an instant upon Stella’s shoulder. ” Now go 
back to the others, like a good girl ; I am not going 
back to the parlors to-night.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Early next morning Stella Hyde left Fleet- 
wood for home, but she reached it a changed being. 
Once the light and sunshine of her home, all the 
brightness had passed away, and her family looked 
at her with anxious and pitying eyes. 

“ Stella,” said her uncle, as she entered the dining- 
room one morning, patting her on the soft cheek 
now so pale, “ where have ybur roses gone ?” 

A shadow flits over the once bright face while 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. II3 

she turns away to conceal the quickly-coming 
tears ; after that they forbear questioning her. And 
ere long Ralph North hears, in his far-away home 
at Fleetwood, that she is slowly dying with con- 
sumption, as, tired of life, utterly hopeless, believing 
that Violet Lyle loves his best friend, he is pre- 
paring for a journey; and, as his way lies directly 
in the route of the springs where Stella’s family 
have taken her in the hope of restoring her to 
health, he resolves to stop and see her. He is 
touched almost to tears by the happy smile, the 
bright and beautiful color which flushes her face 
on meeting him ; and, as he watches the pale face 
ever growing brighter at his approach, his heart, 
ever noble and true, smites him with keen self-re- 
proach. The thought that perhaps he is one cause 
of her failing health haunts him persistently, though 
he tries so hard to banish it. The idea would never 
have occurred to him but for what he had overheard 
in the garden at Fleetwood, and sometimes when 
there he had caught Edith’s eyes fixed upon him 
reproachfully when he chanced to pay Stella some 
little attention. As the black thunder-cloud dark- 
ens the clear, pure face of a fair summer sky, as the 
fierce heat of the lightning burns and blights the 
sweet flowers of the earth, as the bright and beau- 
tiful sun goes down and leaves only darkness in its 
place, so falls the cruel blight of sorrow upon a 
young heart : yet some day the clouds will clear 
10* 


1 14 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

away from the beautiful face of the sky, the flow- 
ers will bloom again upon the beautiful face of the 
earth, the bright and gladdening sun will rise again 
in all its splendor and beauty and glory ; but within 
that fond and faithful heart the sweet flower of 
happiness can never bloom again, the clouds cannot 
clear from that once fair sky, the -bright sun of 
happiness and hope can never rise again, but has 
gone down forever and forever on that sweet 
young life and left only the blackness of utter 
darkness. 

So thought Colonel Clifford, the noble guest of 
Ralph North, who had accompanied him in his 
travels, as he gazed upon the proud, sad face of 
Stella Hyde. “ Oh, love ! Oh, love ! what is it 
but sorrow ? Take it as we may, it only teaches 
us the power there is of suffering in our hearts. 
With some natures ’tis only pride which sustains. 
Where pride is the strongest the heart will live 
on ; but how ? As yonder black and blighted 
tree, once the pride of the beautiful forest, which 
I can just see from the window. Yonder fair girl,” 
he muses, as he gazes with pitying eyes at the 
queenly poise of the shapely head, “ is very proud ; 
but gaze once into the darkly beautiful eyes, look 
once at the sweet quivering lips; her heart is the 
.strongest, and it is her heart which will conquer 
though it kills her; but better so, better so,” he 
mused, sadly. “ Tis a sweet flower, but better an 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. II5 

early grave, with the pure spirit in heaven, than 
life on earth for such as thee. But how different 
it might have been had the dark thunder-cloud 
only stayed away.” 

“ Of what are you thinking so earnestly ?” said 
a sweet voice just behind him. 

He turned, surprised, as a soft hand was laid upon 
his shoulder, and started violently as he raised his 
head and saw the beautiful face of Stella Hyde 
bending over him. “ Of you, my dear,” he an- 
swered, laying his hand kindly upon the one now 
resting on his arm ; “ but I hope that my musings 
will all amount to nothing. Come and let us 
promenade on the gallery : the night is lovely.” 

“ What were you thinking about me ?” she 
asked. ” Do you know that I felt that you were 
thinking of my future ? and it was that thought 
which made me leave my seat and cross the room 
to speak to you ? What was it ? I know it surely 
must or will be true, for you always look beneath 
the surface, and you are such a splendid judge of 
human nature.” 

“ Oh, don’t ask me now, for I will not tell you,” 
he said, with assumed playfulness, and with keen 
and ready wit led the subject of conversation to 
some other theme. But she was not deceived, and 
could but see the sad expression which clouded 
the noble face which so kindly regarded her. 

“ Colonel Clifford,” she said, her voice trembling 


Il6 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

a little as she bade him good-night half an hour 
later, “ I cannot explain the feeling or give any 
reason for it, but something here,” placing her 
hand upon her heart, “ tells me that, if ever I need 
a friend, you will be that friend.” ^ 

“ Thank you for the trust, and be assured that 
for once your feelings did not deceive you ; and, if 
you ever need that friend, never mind where I may 
be, do not hesitate for one instant to call upon 
me,” And clasping her little hands kindly in both 
of his own for a moment, he stood and watched 
the graceful figure as she slowly entered the bril- 
liantly-lighted drawing-room. “ Dear, noble girl ! 
may my gloomy imaginings all prove false; for, if 
there are any who deserve to be happy in this 
world, it is such as you.” Years afterwards he 
often thought of that night, — the night that he 
read her fate in her sad, sweet face, — and how 
intuitively she had guessed it, 

“ Ralph,” said Colonel Clifford to my hero one 
evening soon after their arrival at the springs, 
while they chanced to be seated alone upon one of 
the cool, secluded balconies which aided in making 
the place so attractive to its many visitors, “ that 
girl loves you ; why don’t you marry her?” 

“ Who ? why, what do you mean? of whom are 
you speaking?” said the young man, starting 
violently. 

“ Of Stella Hyde, I say, my boy, why don’t 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


II7 

you marry her? There are few women who are 
lovelier, and none better,” he continued, carelessly 
knocking the ashes from his cigar, 

“ Well, uncle, if you are not the coolest fellow 
that I ever saw in my life !” said his nephew. “ How 
do you know that she would accept me were I so 
presumptuous as to ask ?” 

“ Why, I never in my life saw a face change as 
hers did when you entered the room and spoke to 
her unawares to-night, and I believe that she has 
loved you a long time. Now, when I think of my 
short visit to Fleetwood, I wonder that I was so 
blind ; I knew there was a struggle going on in 
the proud young heart, but I never once thought 
of you. Is it possible that you have never noticed 
it?” he said, looking up keenly into the flushed 
and embarrassed face of his listener. “Ah, I see 
that you have, though you are too noble to say so. 
Then, what stands in the way ? Is there another ? 
Pardon my freedom, my dear young friend, and, 
if there is not, take the advice of. one who is much 
older than yourself; her life may depend upon it, 
and any man who could not love that woman is 
harder than stone. Good-night ;” and, throwing 
away the stump of his cigar, he arose and walked 
away, leaving my hero in a frame of mind hardly 
to be described. He could but wonder how his 
uncle, in his quiet, unobtrusive way, had fathomed 
so much, and by his advice pointed out the very 


Il8 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

course which he had been thinking of ever since 
his arrival at the springs. 

That night, in the privacy of his own room, he 
sat for hours by the window which looked out 
upon the beautiful night, with his head resting 
upon his hand. “ And is it so ? can it be possible 
that he is right ? If it is, how she must have suf- 
fered ! She is indeed very sweet and lovable, and, 
if anything which I can do will make her happy, 
I will not hesitate for another hour. I admire her 
above all other women, and, had I never met an- 
other, she would have been my first choice. But, 
ah, Violet, my little blue-eyed cousin, my heart 
will cling to you. But you shall never know the 
pain which you have unconsciously caused me. I 
will bury my sorrow in my own heart, and, for- 
getting self, my life shall be devoted to yonder 
drooping flower, if she will accept it, for I do love 
her, in .spite of it all. But what am I saying?” he 
said to himself, getting up and pacing the floor, as 
he brushed the masses of damp brown hair from 
his broad, fair brow. “ If there is anything in the 
world which would drive a man wild, it is this 
feeling, or emotion, or ivhatever it is, which is 
called love. I feel like going to the wilds of 
Africa and getting killed by lions. But I could 
not if I would ; there is a stronger chain which 
binds me here. That sad, sweet face, how it haunts 
me ! And yet I can bring the sweetest flush of 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. II9 

color into those pale cheeks whenever it is my 
will.” 

And so he lingered on at the springs, and, though 
sometimes in unguarded moments he could but read 
her heart in her eyes, at times he was chilled by the 
coldness and reserve of the girl whose every 
heart-beat was for him. But hers was a proud 
spirit, and a true woman cannot forget her woman- 
hood. Late one evening, as a company of ladies 
and gentlemen were assembled in one of the spacious 
drawing-rooms, a young lady seated herself at the 
organ, and in a sweet and plaintive voice com- 
menced to sing Longfellow’s beautiful song of 
“ The Bridge.” A passionate lover of music, 
Ralph North listened with hushed breath to every 
word of the song. Directly he heard a convulsive 
sob somewhere very near. Thinking it was .some 
one in distress, he rose and sought a large bay- 
window which was almost concealed by elegant 
curtains of damask and lace. As the heavy folds fell 
behind him, the moonlight streamed in at the case- 
ment, and rested upon the bowed head and graceful 
figure of a young girl kneeling at the window. 

“Stella, Stella,” he said, stooping to raise the 
drooping form and placing her on the sofa, “ what 
grieves you ?” 

“ Oh, nothing, nothing,” she answered, with a 
great effort controlling her voice, “ only I am not 
well, and I so long for home and mother.” 


120 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“And what else, dear?” he asked, kindly; “did 
the song make you sad ?” 

“ Oh,” she said, earnestly, “ while she was sing- 
ing, it seemed that I too was standing on that 
bridge with wooden piers, and wishing, oh ! so 
passionately , — 


‘ that the ebbing tide 

Would bear me away on its bosom o’er the ocean wild and wide ; 
For my heart was hot and restless and my life was full of care. 
And the burden laid upon me seemed greater than I could bear,’ ” 


“ But, my dear child,” he said, gently laying his 
hand upon the bowed head, “ have you never 
thought of the sweet and comforting words of 
the same great poet, that, though into each life 
some rain must fall, some days must be dark and 
dreary, behind the clouds is the sun still shining ? 
And,” he continued, to the still weeping girl, 
“ have you never thought of the One who said 
unto the proud and stormy waves, ‘ Peace ! be 
still ?’ Dear Stella, why do you weep so bitterly ? 
Will you not tell me what it is that troubles you 
so ? Is there anything that I can do to help you ?” 
But the crimson face is only bowed lower. “ If 

I might only bear it for you ” 

“ Would you ?” she asked, wistfully. 

“ If I might, believe me I would gladly do so ; 
only tell me what it is.” ' , 

“ Oh ! I cannot, I cannot.” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


I2I 


“ But you will some day, now, won’t you, dar- 
ling ?” No answer, but her whole frame trembled. 
“ Only give me the right,” he said, drawing the 
slight form to his side, “ and I will do all in my 
power to shield you from suffering. Be my wife, 
and, far away beneath the blue sky and sunny 
clime of Italy, I will seek health and happiness 
for my dark-eyed bride.” 

‘‘ Oh, Ralph, Ralph ! can it be that you love 
me ? Or have you read my heart, and is it only 
pity which makes you speak so to me ? because, 
if it is,” drawing her slender form to its full height, 
and looking at him with flashing eyes, ” I would 
not marry you — no, not to save your life. I 
thought all this time that you loved another.” 
And, turning her haughty little head, she walked 
away, leaving him standing all alone by the 
window. 

“ Very well. Miss Hyde,” he answered, with 
something of her own hauteur, “ I regret very 
much having disturbed you, and will not do so 
again;” and with a low bow he turned and left 
her. 

The next evening, as he was standing all alone in 
the same place, looking moodily out of the win- 
dow at the soft moon which almost flooded the 
recess with its silver light, he felt a light touch 
upon his arm, and, turning suddenly, looked down 
upon a timid, half-averted face, that one glance 


122 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


showing him the struggle which was going on in 
the proud young heart. 

“ Ralph, my noble friend, forgive me if I 
wounded you last night. I shall always look 
upon you as my friend.” 

” But it is not your friendship that I want,” he 
said, placing his hand under her chin and raising 
the blushing face so that he could read its every 
line; ‘‘there is but one gift which I will ever 
accept at your little hands, and that is the gift of 
your love ; will you give it to me, darling ?” he 
asked, as the fair face was again averted. “ Stella,” 
he said, solemnly, ‘‘ only trust your life to me, and 
it shall not be my fault if your future is not happy.” 

‘‘ But do you love me ?” she asked, wistfully 
lifting her tear-stained face to his. 

‘‘ Of course I do,” he said, touched with un- 
utterable tenderness and pity at the wistful appeal; 
‘‘ how could I help it?” And, bending his proud 
head low o’er the drooping one at his side, he 
pressed a kiss on the sweet quivering lips. 

And so, on a lovely day in the sweet spring- 
time, Ralph North and Stella Hyde are united in 
the holy bonds of wedlock. 

“ My dear boy, allow me to congratulate you,” 
said his uncle, who was present at the marriage ; 
“you have won a prize, for, if I am any judge of 
human nature, and I think that I am, your bride 
has the deepest, the truest, the most constant 


123 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

nature of any woman whom I have ever met. 
And yet it is a pity for any to be gifted with such 
a nature as hers, for they seem born to suffer; for 
a being with a heart like hers can feel more in 
one hour than an ordinary one can in ten. There 
is a terrible concentration about such natures 
which it is fearful to think of, and often the physi- 
cal nature is not strong enough to support the 
mental and emotional. She is but a delicate plant, 
one which will blossom and glow into a beautiful 
and useful life in the sweet sunshine of love and 
sympathy, but would droop and die without, as 
sure as yonder frail little plant would wither and 
die without any sunshine.” 

“ Thank you, dear uncle,” said his nephew, with 
a tight clasp of his hand, “ I know that what you 
say is true, and kindly meant; and hope that I 
will know how to cherish and guard my flower. 
Come, Stella, here is an old friend to whom you 
have not spoken this evening,” he said, approach- 
ing his bride, who was surrounded by a group of 
girls.” 

“ Ah, Colonel Clifford,” she answered, hastening 
to the old man’s side, with a bright smile of 
welcome lighting up her happy face. 

But the old man sighs, as he rides away that 
evening, when he thinks of the young couple just 
starting out on the broad highway of life, whom 
he has just left. 


124 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


CHAPTER XV. 

Looking in his wife’s desk for some writing- 
materials one morning, Ralph North found the fol- 
lowing piece of poetry, signed by Stella, written 
some time before her marriage : 

• THE SNOW-STORM. 

The earth was asleep, the world was at rest, 

When two spirits came out from the north and the west, 

And then for an instant they waved a bright wand, 

And a change swept all over the face of the land. 

With swift loving fingers thy maidens in white 
Have decked thee, O beautiful bride of the night ! 

And when in the morning thy king, the proud sun, 

Shall see all thy loveliness, holy and pure, 

A warm kiss of welcome will greet thy sweet mouth. 

Like the wild flowers that bloom in his own distant south. 

In the cold winter weather we climb into bed. 

So snug and so warm, with a tired aching head; 

We sleep and we dream all the long freezing night, 

We wake, and the ground is all covered with white. 

We sit by the fireside so warm and so bright. 

With faces so happy, with hearts free and light ; 

We gaze in the eyes of the one we love best. 

And forget that the storm’s raging out in the west. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


125 


Oh, well I remember the laugh and the shout 
When we made the old snow-man so tall and so stout; 

Then all of us ran off, and left him to stand 

Till the warm, radiant sunshine came out o’er the land. 

We left him alone till the rest of the snow 

Had melted and gone ’neath the sun’s warm glow; 

Then, with sweet milk and sugar the snow-man we mixed. 
And ’twas ever so nice when we got it all fixed. 

Beautiful snow, beautiful snow ! 

How softly it falls on the dark world below ! 

Covering over so gently, but' sure. 

Each black spot of earth with its mantle so pure. 

Like charity with her own mantle so fair. 

O’er the faults of the wide world she throws it with care ; 
Beautiful snow, beautiful snow ! 

Oh, why do I love it, the beautiful snow ? 

Some day in the future 
The beautiful snow 
Will fall on my breast. 

Stilling all of its woe, 

Cooling all of the fever of sadness and pain. 

Which is burning away all my heart and my brain. 

Beautiful snow, beautiful snow ! 

Some day I’ll find rest ’neath the beautiful snow. 

As she enters the room half an hour later, while 
the poem is still in his hand, he draws her to a 
seat beside him on the sofa, and, holding it up be- 
fore her eyes, says, fondly, “ I did not know that 
my wife was a poetess before; your poetry is 
beautiful, and I am very proud of it. But the last 
part is too sad ; what made you write it, dear ?” 

II* 


126 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ I don’t know, Ralph, only the snow was so 
beautiful that day, and when I commenced to write 
the poem I had no idea that it would end in that 
way.” 

“ My darling,” he says, drawing her nearer to 
his side, and looking down anxiously upon the 
delicate, spirituelle face, “ write just as much poetry 
as you please in the future; but let me hope that 
it will be written in a brighter, happier spirit ; let 
me see some sunshine in the lines; is there not 
some in your life now, darling?” 

“ Indeed there is,” she answers, with a sweet 
smile. 

But, as he gazes in the dark, lustrous eyes, a 
sudden pang seizes his heart,’ and he turns away, 
his handsome face paling with a nameless dread. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Too late. “ The bow was bent. 

The arrow sped,” and its mission was death. 

” Open the window, Ralph.” He raises it, and, 
gently lifting the frail form of his wife in his arms, 
seats himself in a large chair near it, which com- 
mands a full view of the dark-blue waves of the 
Adriatic. “ Isn’t it lovely out there, dear?” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


127 


“ Very lovely, my darling.” 

Twining her beautiful arms around his neck and 
leaning her head on his breast, she rests there in 
perfect contentment for a while; and, as he lays 
his dark cheek against the one now glowing with 
the fatal beauty of the hectic flush, Stella North 
murmurs, fondly, “ I do not think that we will be 
together much longer, my husband, but you have 
made my life.J^? happy that for my own sake I have 
nothing to regret except the parting. At first it 
seemed, oh ! very bitter, but God has shown me 
that it is all for the best. My nature was proud 
and high, and for a long time the light seemed 
taken from me ; He knew best, and chastened the 
proud spirit which* at first rebelled at His decree. 
At one time death was all I craved, all I prayed 
for; at last I found comfort and peace in the 
Saviour’s words ; and then came the sweet sun- 
shine of your love, but with it another temptation 
fierce and strong, — the longing, the passionate de- 
sire that I might live, if only for a few short years ; 
you made life so sweet to me, dear,” looking up 
in his face with a clinging, passionate affection 
that made the strong man tremble and draw her 
closer to his heart, “ that again I was tempted to 
rebel. Remember this, my husband, when the 
sunshine rests upon my grave, and think of the 
one who sleeps there so peacefully, that you made 
life very dear, and happy, and peaceful for her. 


128 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE, 


Oh, Ralph, / cannot see you !” she says, shivering 
and clinging tightly to his breast ; “ I am cold ; 
clasp me closer, give me one more kiss and, as 
he presses his lips to hers, she murmurs, faintly, 
“the waters seem cold and dark without you, 
dear.” A pause, while he bends low, listening for 
the faint breathing which scarcely stirs the folds of 
her snowy dress. Again she speaks, very clearly 
this time, while her whole face brightens, “ But 
there is a light on the other side. Good-by, Ralph ; 
we shall meet again. Mother, I am coming and, 
with a smile of unrivalled sweetness resting on her 
beautiful face, the pure spirit of Stella North passes 
away as gently as a fading flower. 

“ Only the bride of a month, my lost love !” he 
murmurs, bending his proud head low o’er the 
sweet face which droops on his bosom ; and with 
his brown hair mingling with the long raven curls 
which cover his breast, the physician finds the 
young husband who has sought the sunny vales 
of Italy in the vain hope of restoring to health his 
young and beautiful bride. 

Long and sadly did the young hero grieve for 
his gentle bride, but something as a brother would 
mourn for a loving sister. The last months of her 
short life had been so happy, her death so peaceful 
and painless, that he could not know the keen 
suffering, the passionate despair which rends some 
hearts at such times. But often in his lonely trav- 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


129 


els would the vision of a flower-strewn grave, with 
the sunshine resting upon it, far away in the sunny 
clime of Italy, appear before him, obscuring all 
that was bright and cheerful in his pathway ; for 
years passed ere he returned to his boyhood’s 
home. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

In the library at Fleetwood Mrs. North and her 
little daughter are sitting, busy with their em- 
broidery. Maude is the same bright, frank, fear- 
less creature that she was, only she has grown 
taller and larger, and there is a look of wistful 
sadness in the large dark eyes. There is little 
change in the old lady, but the wrinkles are 
deeper and more noticeable, and the few gray 
hairs in the soft brown hair are plainer and more 
silvery-looking. Now she has laid away her 
work, and sits with folded hands looking dreamily 
out of the window. 

“ Mamma,” says Maude, going up behind her 
mother’s chair, “when is Brother Ralph coming 
home?” 

“ I don’t know, dear,” says the old lady, turning 
away, that her daughter might not see the tears 
which are dimming her patient eyes. 


130 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

But Maude takes the sweet old face in her 
hands, and kisses the tears away. I think he 
might come, if he cares anything for us, and if he 
don't come soon, I shall just write by the next 
mail, and tell him that he is just as mean as he 
can be, that he has forgotten us all, and is breaking 
your heart; for, mamma,” she goes on, passion- 
ately, in spite of the soft detaining hand, ” I know 
it is so, although you try so hard 'to hide it from 
me; and, now that dear Stella is dead, he has 
nothing to keep him away.” 

“ Now, dear, you must promise me not to do 
any such thing.” 

“ Well, I won’t, mamma, to please you, for I 
know I am often very naughty; but, mamma, I 
love you, I love you, no matter luhat I may do ; 
and I love him too, and don’t want to hurt his 
feelings.” 

“ I know it, dear,” says her mother, kissing the 
sweet, flushed face of the excited child ; “ and I 
love and prize my little daughter more than she 
will ever know ; for I know that her heart is good 
and true, although she is too quick and impulsive 
many, many times. My child, that is a fault 
which will cause you very many tears if you do 
not correct it in time.” 

“ Mamma, niamma'd she says, gazing intently 
from the window, “ yonder is a gentleman coming 
up the walk, and I believe — yes, it is Brother 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 131 

Ralph.” In an instant she is flying down the 
stairs, and at the foot of the second flight stum- 
bles and falls almost in her brother’s arms, “ You 
naughty brother, why have you not come before ?” 
she says, hugging him tightly around the neck. 
“ I have just been talking about you.” 

In a moment he holds his mother to his heart. 
“ Dear mother, have you missed me ? I have been 
away a long time, but have never forgotten the 
dear home faces.” Then he looks around as if 
missing some one. 

“You are looking for Violet,” says Maude. 
“ Yonder she is. Violet, why don’t you run ? don’t 
you know that this is Brother Ralph ?” 

A deeper crimson tints the soft cheek of Violet 
Lysle as Ralph North bends over and for the first 
time takes the privilege of a cousin and presses 
his lips to her cheek ; there is a slight tremor in 
the little hand which she extends to him; other- 
wise she is as calm and cool, not to say cold, as a 
piece of marble. 

“ My dear son, where have you been all of these 
long, long years ?” says his mother ; “ home has 
not been home without you.” 

“You have missed me, then?” he says, looking 
at them all, but his gaze resting longest upon 
Violet, who has drawn somewhat apart, leaving 
mother, son, and daughter together. 

From a lovely girl of sweet seventeen she has 


132 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


grown into a beautiful woman, as the sweet bud 
blooms into the perfect flower. There is a darker 
color to the golden hair, a brighter red to the 
coral lips, a richer tone to the sweet and musical 
voice, a deeper, darker blue to the soft violet eyes ; 
in the whole face and form there is a subtile 
change. But in the soft depth of her beautiful 
eyes there is a change which time alone could not 
cause ; it is at times a look of patient sadness, as 
though some storm of passionate sorrow had 
swept over the bright young head and tortured 
her woman’s heart to keenest agony. To Ralph 
North she seems strangely cold, and avoids him 
so often and continuously that he can but notice 
it. Kind, polite, .and obliging she always is, but 
there is a barrier between them which all of his 
efforts cannot break. Though her changed man- 
ner wounds him deeply, he never appears to 
notice it, but at such times a close observer could 
not help seeing a shadow in his eyes and a look of 
keenest pain about the sternly compressed lips. 
Sometimes he wonders if Clarence Ogden has 
caused the change, and the torturing thought 
brings a look of greater sternness into his hand- 
some face. 

“The traitor!'’’ he says to himself; “if I ever 
learn that he has in the least trifled with her young 
heart, he shall suffer for it, even were he my own 
brother.’’ Then he thinks that perhaps she is 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. I 33 

engaged to him, but soon learns from Maude that 
Violet has refused him. 

“ She did not tell me, Brother Ralph, but I 
happened to overhear something by accident one 
day, and when I accused her of it she could not 
deny it. Did you think she cared anything for 
him ? I never did and, with a quick toss of her 
independent little head, she left him to his own 
reflections, which were rather perplexing, to say 
the least of them. 

One day, when her continued indifference had 
driven him almost wild, some of the hands on the 
place brought up a young and very vicious horse 
which had never been ridden but once, and the 
rider, a" brave young Texan, although accustomed 
to breaking the wildest horses that roamed over 
the prairies, had paid the penalty with his life. In 
spite of all that his mother and sister could say, 
Ralph North determined to purchase and ride the 
restless animal, which stood champing the bit and 
foaming at the mouth, it being all that two stout 
men could do to hold him as he pawed up the 
ground at his feet. 

“ ’Deed, Mars Ralp,” says one of the negroes to 
the young planter, “ you is a brave man, an’ has 
rid many a wild horse; but dis beast beats all I 
ever seed, he acts ’zactly like he’s been bit by a 
mad dog; it ain’t been five minutes since he’s 
pawed one of my dogs to death ; an’ I don’t think 
12 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


134 

any man on de green yearth could stay on his 
back a minit, all sleek an’ pretty as he is. Dare is 
somethin’ strange ’bout dis horse; his hair is as 
slick an’ fine as missus’ silk dress.” 

During all of this talk Violet Lysle stands aside 
and .says not a word, though her face is deathly 
white. Maude hastily beckons her away, and, 
throwing her arms around her neck, begs her, 
with tears in her eyes, to ask her brother not to 
ride that horse. ” Oh, Violet, Violet, I believe your 
coldness has driven him to it,” she whispers, with 
white lips. 

“ Dear Maude,” says Violet, her voice trembling, 
“ it would not be of any use : look at his face. 
But if you think that my words would have any 
influence, I will do so.” 

“ Be quick, then,” gasps Maude, “ or it will be 
too late.” 

“ For de love of your life. Mars Ralph, don't 
mount dat vicious beast,” says one of the men, 
turning ashy pale, though his face is of ebon 
blackness. 

“ Nonsense ! stand aside !" As the stern com- 
mand is given, the negroes obey ; and, springing 
down the stone steps, the haughty owner of Fleet- 
wood has just laid his hand upon the horse’s silky 
mane, when, with a step as quick as his own, 
Violet Lysle is at his side with her hand upon his 
arm. Looking around, he says, impatiently, 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 1 35 

“ Violet, get out of the way ; don’t you see that 
you are in danger?” 

“ Ralph, dear cousin,” she says, pleadingly, 
“ don't ride that wild horse.” 

“ What difference does it make to you ?” he 
exclaims, almost rudely, stepping aside and letting 
the soft hand drop from its resting-place. But she 
perseveres, though her face crimsons at the slight. 
The next instant he takes them both in his own, 
and almost crushes them in his strong clasp; then 
throws them from him and says, sternly, “ Stand 
aside, I say.” 

Never!” she answers, looking him straight in 
the face. 

“ Do you wish to be trampled to death ?” 

“ I had just as well be here as you.” For one 
breathless instant they stand looking in each 
other’s eyes. “ Don’t you see that you are break- 
ing your mother’s heart ?” 

“ Dear mother !” he says, the stern lines of his 
face softening, “ I must not be cruel to the only 
heart that loves me. But I do not believe that 
Violet Lysle would shed one tear were I crushed 
to death beneath the iron hoofs of yonder savage 
beast.” Bitterly wounded, Violet turns away, as 
he orders the horse back to the stable, and, mount- 
ing his own horse, a spirited black with arched neck 
and tapering limbs, which is standing at the rack, 
he rides away. 


136 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“ Well,” said one of the men, as he led away the 
beautiful and graceful animal, “ if Miss Violet ain’t 
the bravest young lady that / ever seed ! Wasn’t 
she a beauty as she stood there almost daring Mr. 
Ralph, and the wild horse almost tramping on 
her dress ? he come within one inch of steppin’ 
on her little foot. I wonder what is de matter 
wid de young boss ; his blood was up, sure ; I 
never seed him in sich a way before.” 

“ Dear Violet,” said Maude, throwing her arms 
around her as she entered the house, “thank you, 
oh, thank you ! how brave you are ! I expected 
every moment to see you killed. Sometimes I 
don’t know what to make of men ; there is some- 
thing savage and wild about them, even my own 
brother, though he has never shown it before.” 

“ Violet,” said Ralph one day, soon after his re- 
turn from the post-office, “ here is a letter which 
came directed to me, but I found, when I opened 
it, that it was written to the young ladies who 
were visiting here four or five summers ago, and I 
suppose it was intended for you also. Do you 
remember the drunken man whom you girls met 
in the forest one evening about that time? Well, 
the letter is from him; here it is.” 

“ You read it,” she answered. 

“ ‘ Dear Young Ladies, — I reached home all right on the 15th 
of January. Found mother and father both sick in bed, almost 
helpless; but I got a doctor for them, and they are up and about 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 1 37 

now, doing very well ; and so proud and happy to have me with 
them once more, for they had given me up for lost. I shall never 
forget the day I got home, as long as I live. I found the old 
place gone a good deal to rack, but am hard at work now build- 
ing it up, and have a fine crop on hand. I never felt better or 
stronger in my life; I feel that God’s arm is around me, holding 
me up, and that I never shall go back to my old wild ways again. 
Sometimes the old terrible thirst would come back, especially if I 
ever happened to get a sight of what came so near being my ruin ; 
but I tried to keep away from temptation, and, when I felt it 
coming upon me fierce and strong, I would get down on my knees 
and ask God to help me, and He did, and so He would help all if 
they would only ask Him as I did. Oh, that I could go out in the 
world and beg and plead with the thousands of drunken wretches 
who are wandering around this beautiful earth houseless and home- 
less and desolate as I was the day that you saw me in the wood ! I 
often think of you, ladies, especially the one who sang that beau- 
tiful song which went straight home to my heart, and thank you 
over and over again for coming to me as you did that day like 
angels in the wood, and telling me of my faults, when othem 
would have pa.ssed me by with scorn. “ Oh, let him alone; he is 
only a drunken tramp; you’ll find so many of them lying along 
the road-side !” and they would have passed by on the other side, 
lest by chance they might have become contaminated. And I 
was a wretch, but one with a heart to break, and an immortal soul 
to save. But you came, with your sweet song and angel faces, 
and lifted me up. I sometimes think that God sent you to me 
that day, to save me from a horrible life and an awful death ; for 
I was going “ the down-grade” fast and faster, and at that time 
did not care for anything in the world. God bless you for it all ! 
There is but one cloud across my sky : I miss my sweet little sis- 
ter’s face more and more every day. I dreamed of her the other 
night : I thought her little white sandalled feet were standing on 
a bank of golden clouds with the sun shining through them, and 
she was beckoning to me with her little hand, saying, in her sweet 
childish voice which I remember so well, “ Robbie, come up 

12* 


138 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


higher!” And, please God, I mean to go higher and higher, 
until I reach the foot of the Great White Throne and kneel there 
at her side. Father and mother send you a message of love and 
thanks for sending their boy home to comfort their hearts in their 
old age. Good-by, and sometimes think of Robbie Grey, the 
drunken tramp whom you met that day, as a saved and reformed 
man.’ ” 

“ Ah,” said Violet, “ it was Stella’s song which 
saved him, more than anything else. Dear girl, I 
wish she could have seen this letter. But she 
knows it now, or will one day in the happy future, 
when she, too, meets the drunken tramp at the 
foot of our Father’s throne.” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

One evening Maude North asked her brother to 
accompany her to the library and get her a book 
which was on a shelf too high for her to reach. 

” Well, what book is it ?” he asked, as they en- 
tered. 

“ Longfellow’s poems ; I have wanted to read 
them for some time. But that was not the only 
reason that I wanted you to come in here ; it is 
because I have something to tell you.” 

“ Well, then, out with it, for I am in a hurry and 
must go.” 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


139 


“ Brother,” she said, going up to him, and 
looking him straight in the eyes, “ do you love 
Violet ?” 

“ Why, Maude,” he said, his haughty face flush- 
ing a dark crimson, “ are you crazy ? What do 
you mean ?” 

“ What I say,” she replied, coolly. 

“ If that is all you have to say to me, I must 
go,” he said, angrily. 

“ No, it is not,” she said, “ but you can go.” 

But he lingered. “ Does what you have to tell 
me concern Violet?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Well, what is it ?” 

“ If you don’t answer my question first. I’ll not 
tell you.” 

“What difference does that make?” he said, im- 
patiently. 

“ A great deal,” she answered, taking up the 
book of poems and beginning to read ; “ you 
can go.” 

“You little tormentor,” he says, laughing, “ now, 
tell me, like a good little sister,” — coaxingly. 

“ No.” 

“ Why ?” 

“ It would not be fair; and I am not sure that I 
am acting honorably in telling you at all.” 

“Well, then,” he said, recklessly, “I do love her; 
now, what is it that you have to tell me ?” 


140 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


“Brother Ralph, I always loved Stella, but I 
wanted Violet for my sister. You used to think 
that she loved Mr. Ogden, but it was not Mr. 
Ogden that she talked about in her sleep,” she 
said, her bright eyes twinkling. 

“ Who was it, then ?” 

“ Never mind. I suppose you remember that 
very soon after your marriage with Stella you wrote 
to mamma. Well, she let me see the letter. When 
I read it, Violet and I were alone, sitting out in 
the yard on the stone bench under the big oak- 
tree. When I came to the part in which you told 
her that you were married, she fainted, and in the 
fall struck her head upon the hard stone and cut 
a deep gash in her forehead. Poor Violet ! I felt 
so sorry for her. I raised her up as well as I 
could, and, running to the spring, brought some 
water and bathed her face, and, when she came to 
herself, she begged me not to tell any one that she 
had fainted, and, although I did not promise, I 
have never spoken of it to any one before until 
to-day. And, Brother Ralph, she went to her own 
room and did not leave it for weeks. She was very 
sick, and mamma had to send for the doctor, who 
said she had brain fever caused by some sudden 
shock ; and I felt so sorry that I used to cry every 
day. I never let her know that I suspected a thing, 
but. Brother Ralph, I knew that she loved you all 
the time, though every one thinks I am such a 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 14I 

child. And she has never been quite the same 
since.” 

During the time that Maude was talking 
Ralph North did not once speak or change 
his position, but sat with one hand shading 
his face from the light. He now remembered 
that one day, as the wind blew aside the soft 
curls from her pure and beautiful brow, he had 
noticed a scar, and wondered at the time why 
she blushed so painfully when he asked her 
about it. 

“ One night,” continued Maude, ” when mamma 
was too sick to stay with her, and no one was in 
the room but me, she was delirious, and raved 
about you all night.” 

“What did she say about me?” he asked, 
hoarsely. 

“ I’ll not tell you another word unless you 
promise me first that you will never ride that 
fearful horse.” 

“I promise,” he .said, smiling, “ but bless that 
horse ; now, what was it ?” 

“ Oh, she called you her dear, her noble Ralph, 
the only one she had ever loved; and, if you only 
knew one-half that she said, you would not want 
to be killed.” 

“ Who told you that I wanted to be killed. Miss 
Wisdom ?” 

“Nobody; but I won’t say any more about that; 


142 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


you have promised, remember. Now, you keep 
my secret, and I’ll keep yours.” 

“ Do you think that she cares anything for me 
now ?” he asked, earnestly. 

“ If you had seen how deathly white she was 
when you started to ride that wild horse, you 
would think so, I rather reckon ; but you were so 
blind that day that I don’t think you could see 
much of anything.” 

When she had finished speaking, he took her 
in his arms, and kissed her again and again. 
“Thank you, my precious little sister; you have 
made me inexpressibly happy.” 

“ Dear brother, you ought to thank me, for, 
although I am often so bad, this is the first time 
in my life that I have ever broken a promise, — no, 
I did not promise, but Violet trusted me, and, if 
she knew that I had told you what I have, she 
would go away and never forgive or trust me 
again as long as she lives. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

The next evening, as my hero sits in his own 
room smoking a fragrant Havana, from his window 
he sees Violet with a book in her hand go out in 
the garden among the roses. He watches her 
dreamily, with a half-smile curving his proud lips, 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


143 


as she enters an arbor covered over with the wild 
honeysuckle ; then, throwing away his half-finished 
cigar, strolls out from the house and enters the 
garden by another gate; directly he comes in 
sight of the arbor, and for a short while watches 
the lovely inmate unseen. After bending over 
her book for a little while, she throws it aside with 
an impatient sigh, and, stretching out one dainty 
hand, gathers a spray of the fragrant flower which 
grows in such wild luxuriance around her, and sits 
for some time tearing its delicate petals to pieces. 
A slight movement which he makes attracts her 
attention, and, raising her head, her eyes, dark 
and dreamy with intense thought, meet his, while 
a deep crimson burns away the delicate glow from 
her cheek. 

“ Spare that flower, little cousin,” he says, with 
a smile. “Why, Violet, I am surprised to see one 
so gentle and tender with everything else, so ruth- 
lessly tearing to pieces a sweet and innocent flower 
like this ; give it to me, now, won’t you ?” 

“ No,” she answers, rising and shaking the frag- 
ments from her dress ; “ what do you want with a 
broken flower? that is something which few gen- 
tlemen care for.” 

“ You are mistaken at least in one,” he says, as 
he tenderly gathers up a handful which had fallen 
upon the seat; “all bruised and broken as it is, 
this flower is sweeter and lovelier to me than 


144 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


whole handfuls which had never been hurt. Don’t 
you know that it is a sad but well-established fact 
that a flower never exhales its fragrance at any 
other time as it does when it is broken ? And I 
have heard the same of woman’s heart; never 
does the purity and beauty and faithfulness of a 
woman’s nature shine forth as it does when the 
dark clouds of sorrow and adversity gather over 
our heads and drive all of the sunshine from our 
hearts. It is then, though her cheek be faded and 
her bright eyes dimmed by sadness and tears, that 
the pure and sterling gold of her nature proves 
itself,” he says, placing the flowers in his coat; 
and, brushing aside her dress, he takes a seat. 
“ But where are you going now ?” he asks, as she 
rises with some slight excuse. 

“ Only in the house, as I promised to be with 
my aunt at this hour ; it is time for my drawing- 
lesson. But I will stop long enough to thank you 
for the compliment paid to my sex.” 

“ I’m sure the lessons can wait for a little while, 
— just a little while, Violet,” he says, in a low, 
pleading voice, as she rises again and says, hastily, 
“ Excuse me. Cousin Ralph, but I must go.” 

“ Violet,” he says, reproachfully, catching her 
hand and detaining her in spite of her efforts to 
escape, “ you have done nothing but treat me 
with studied coldness and avoided me constantly 
since my return home ; what is the reason ? what 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 1 45 

have I done to merit such treatment? You are 
indeed sadly changed from the little blue-eyed 
maiden who used to treat me so kindly ; from a 
lovely and confiding girl of sweet seventeen, you 
have changed seemingly into a cold, proud woman. 
But, although you try so hard to crush and hide 
it with the force of that determined will, yours is 
a true woman’s heart, you little tyrant, and you 
cafinot help it.” 

“ I do not see why that should interest you in 
the least,” is the cold reply. “ Will you let me 
pass ?” 

“ Certainly,” he answers, haughtily moving aside, 
stung to the quick by her cold reply. 

As she attempts to pass him her dress catches 
on a spray of the vine ; hurriedly disengaging it, 
a picture falls from its folds to the ground as she 
leaves the arbor unconscious of her loss. Stoop- 
ing to pick it up, Ralph North recognizes his own 
picture drawn in crayon, with ” My love, my love,” 
written just beneath in Violet’s own hand. 

That night, as she sits all alone in the library 
practising her drawing-lesson, he enters the room, 
and, drawing a chair in front of her own, takes a 
seat, and hands her the picture which he had 
found a few hours before. As her eyes fall upon 
it, a perfect wave of crimson rushes over the fair 
face ; covering it with both hands, the picture falls 
to the floor. Stooping for the second time to pick 

13 


146 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

it Up, he raises his head, and she has left the room. 
He overtakes her just as she reaches the foot of 
the stair which leads to her own room, and, catch- 
ing her hand with gentle violence, leads her out 
on the balcony in the soft moonlight, and says, 
“ It is of no use now, Violet, you shall not leave 
me again until I find out why it is that you avoid 
me so persistently.” 

“ Oh, Cousin Ralph, let me go,” she pleads, 
trying with all her strengh to release her hand. 

“ Never,” he says, “ until you answer my ques- 
tion.” 

“ Because, because — oh, let me go !” she says, 
and then bursts into a perfect passion of tears. 

“Violet,” he says, gently, “if you are as in- 
different to me as you would have me believe, why 
did I find my picture with those words in your own 
hand written beneath in your possession ?” No 
answer but a sob. “ My darling,” he goes on, 
taking her into the sheltering clasp of his arms, 
“you do love me; so, why not tell me so? 
Surely you know that I love you.” 

“ Because ” 

“ What, darling?” 

“ I did not want to love any one.” 

“ But you can’t help yourself; so, what will you 
do now?” 

“ But I won't love you,” she says, trying all in 
vain to release herself. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


147 


“My darling ” 

Hush!" she says, passionately. “Ah, well I 
remember those low and fascinating tones — they 
had the power to wound me once, but they never 
shall touch my heart again.” 

“Violet!” 

“ Leave me, I . say I I tell you my heart is 
stone.” 

“ If it is, it is mine, and you cannot help it, and 
I will 7iever leave you until you look me in the 
eyes and say, ‘ Ralph North, I do not love you.’ ” 
No answer but a haughty turn of the little head. 
“ Say it I” he continues. Not a word. “ Ah, 
Violet, look me in the eyes;” and, placing his 
hand under her chin, he raises the sweet, flushed 
face so that he can read its every line. But the 
dark lashes droop over the deep-blue eyes. “ You 
dare not 1” he cries, with a laugh of triumph ; “ my 
darling’s soul is too white, her lips too pure, to 
ever let her stain them with a falsehood.” 

“ Let me go I” she says, passionately. 

“ Never, until you answer my question.” 

“ Well, then, it is no.” 

“ No, I do not love you ?” he asks, though his 
handsome face pales a little. As he attempts again 
to raise the drooping face, she hides it against his 
arm. “Ah, Violet, Violet, my little darling, your 
heart is mine, mine in spite of yourself, and I will 
never give you up. Let me hear you say just once 


148 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


‘ I love you,’ ” he pleads, trying all in vain to raise 
the golden head. 

“ Nor 

“ Why ?” 

“ Not until you promise me never to ride that 
terrible horse. Oh, Ralph, how could you be so 
cruel?” 

“ I promise,” is the quick reply, a smile curving 
his handsome lips as he presses a kiss on that shy, 
sweet mouth. “ Ah, Violet, Violet, you are the 
sweetest, oddest, strangest woman in_ the world, 
but you are mine, mine forever and forever.” 

That night at the supper-table Maude looks up 
from her plate and says, “ Violet, you are the 
prettiest girl that I ever saw in my life. Just look 
at her. Brother Ralph. Why, what is the matter 
with you? Oh, / know;” and, jumping up from 
her seat, she goes around by his chair and gives 
him a kiss and a hug so tight that she almost 
chokes him, and then bestows the same loving 
caress upon Violet. 

“ Why, Maude, what is the matter ?” says her 
mother, with surprise. “ Sit down and finish your 
supper.” 

“Oh, mamma, mamma! don’t you know?” 

“ What, dear ?” But as the old lady looks up 
in her son’s face and then at the blushing one 
opposite, she half guesses the truth. 

“ It is only this, mother,” says the young man; 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


149 


rising and going around to Violet’s chair, he takes 
her hand in his own and leads her to his mother’s 
side. “ We two love one another, and ask your 
blessing.” 

“ Certainly, my children,” says the old lady, 
kissing them both, and taking off her glasses to 
wipe the tears away. 


CHAPTER XX. 

“Wedding-cards,” said Ralph North to his 
young bride one day, as the mail was brought in by 
a servant, who after delivering it left the room. 

“ Whose are they ?” 

“ Can’t you guess ?” he said, playfully holding 
them out of her reach. 

“ No, of course I can’t ; you know I was never 
good at guessing; tell me, now, won’t you ?” 

Bending over, he kissed the eager, blushing face, 
then placed them in the little outstretched hands 
and watched her changing expression as she read 
them : “ Edith Grey and Mr. Ogden ! I am so 
glad.” 

“ Do you know, darling, that I was once sure 
that you loved him, the more so from some remark 
which Miss Agnes Drew made on the subject in 
my presence than from any other cause.” 

13* 


150 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

“Mean thing!” said Maude, who unnoticed had 
entered the room and overheard the last words. 
“ I am ever so glad that you did not let her catch 
you I Sweet, pretty Miss Edith ! I knew she liked 
him, if Violet didn’t,” her bright eyes sparkling. 
“ We are all going, ain’t we ? I shall go and ask 
mamma now. And, dear me,” she continued, her 
young face flushing with pleasure, as she hastily 
read a letter which her brother had just handed 
her, “ / am to be bridesmaid, if I am only a little 
girl.” 

“ I am afraid you will not be a little girl much 
longer,” said her brother, playfully pinching her 
cheek ; “ that head of yours is much too old for 
your age now.” Go along and ask mamma, and, 
if she wishes, we shall certainly go. “ What do 
you think of it, Violet ?” he said, with a fond 
glance at his young wife. 

“ Oh, I would not miss it for anything. Ralph, 
come to the window and look out at the beautiful 
sunshine ; see, it has driven every cloud away. It 
reminds me of life. The morning of my young 
life was full of sadness, but in its noontide the 
brightness of your love has driven the clouds far 
away. I do not mean that the past can ever be 
forgotten, nor would I have it so ; but something 
here,” placing her little hand upon her heart, 
“ tells me that I shall some day in the dim, distant 
future meet the dear absent ones who have only 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 151 

gone before, and, when we all meet in that beau- 
tiful land, how happy we will be in ‘ the sweet by 
and by.’ ” 

“ Darling,” he said, bending to kiss the sweet, 
thoughtful face, “ I would rather not hear you talk 
in that way ; let us live in the happy present, and 
trust the future to a loving and merciful God, who 
sends both clouds and sunshine.” 



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CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


155 


MOONLIGHT IN NEW ORLEANS. 

Night closes over the city. 

The beautiful Queen of the South, 

The flower-gemmed, star-crowned city. 

Which stands at the river’s mouth. 

The soft southern moon tints with silver 
Thy churches and minarets fair. 

Then flies to the waves of the river 
And leaves its bright footprints there. 

Then swift o’er the streets with their shadows 
It pauses and lingers awhile. 

O’er scenes of bright joy and of sadness 
It she*ds the soft light of its smile. 

Then quick o’er the faces of maidens 
With brown and with raven hair. 

It pauses and sheds its bright glory 
Of gold and of silver there. 

O’er thy monuments reaching to cloudland, 

Fair gardens and mansions so grand ; 

O’er the tombs of the dead Southern heroes 
Who fell in defence of their land ; 

O’er thy homes for the poor and the needy 
Who are houseless and hungry and cold ; 

O’er thy schools for the young and the lovely. 

It pauses and sheds its bright gold. 

O’er the ships which lie still at their harbor. 
Which are followed with tears and with prayer. 

O’er the boats steaming down the deep river. 

It falls with its beauty so rare. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


156 


O'er the gay and the glittering pageant 
Of Mardi Gras brilliant and brave. 

It gleams and then wanders to ocean, 

And hides its bright head ’neath her wave. 

Oh ! we honor and love the old city 
Which goes by the name of a queen, 

A gem and a star among women. 

The lovely young maid of Orleans. 


ANSWER TO “EMPTY CRADLE.” 

Sweet mother, do not weep. 

For your little darling’s gone 

To a better and a brighter world above. 

Where never pain nor sorrow 
Can touch her gentle heart ; 

Then cheer your lonely spirit, don’t be sad. 

Though the cradle’s empty. 

And the tender form 

Which rested on its cushions now has fled. 
Remember she is safe 
In the angel’s soft embrace ; 

Then cheer your lonely spirit, don’t be sad. 

Oh, mother! you’d be glad 
That your little babe is dead. 

Could you look into the future, see the pain 
Which your pretty darling’s missed 
By going home to rest. 

You’d thank the God of mercy that she’s gone. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


157 


Though you miss the golden head 
Once pillowed on your breast, 

Though the sweet blue eyes are closed, 

And can’t wake at love’s caress. 

Oh, mother ! do not grieve for your little darling gone ; 
Now she sleeps in peaceful rest 
On a loving Saviour’s breast. 


MAMMA’S BABY. 

Hair like rays of sunshine. 

Brow so soft and fair. 

That you’d think the snow-flakes 
Loved to linger there. 

Eyes the skies might envy 
For their azure hue ; 

Mamma’s bound to love him. 
Darling little Jule. 

Dainty loving dimples 
Dent his rosy cheek ; 

The sweetest little darling 
That ever tried to speak. 


NIGHT IN CITY AND COUNTRY. 

A DREAM. 

’Tis night in the grand old city. 

The city of power and pride. 

The home of so many thousands 
Who dwell by the river’s side. 


*4 


158 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


She’s been standing there for ages, 

Yes, long, long ages ago; 

In the bright and the sunshiny weather; 

In the winter when covered with snow. 

Yes, ’tis night in the beautiful city 
Which stands by the river’s side. 

As a fair girl stands at her mirror 
Ere she goes forth a happy bride. 

Now she stands in her cold, silent beauty 
’Neath the light of a midnight moon; 

A statue of beauty and sorrow 

Which is coming, yes, coming too soon. 

O city of starlight and sunshine ! 

O queen, to thy people so dear ! 

O mother of happy children. 

Who sleep ’neath thy skies so clear ! 

Awake ! for the pestilence cometh ; 

Awake ! for ’tis now at thy gate ; 

Though the moon is now shining so softly. 
By its light I can see thy sad fate. 

Ah, children of wealth and of squalor. 

The lowly, the humble, and proud. 

Will soon lie in death’s cold pallor 
Asleep in thy halls side by side. 

There is room for them all and there’s mercy 
For all who will ask it of God ; 

For many, the rich and the lowly. 

Will sleep, soon sleep ’neath the sod. 

All over the fever-struck city 
The pestilence rages and bums ; 

The victims are dying by thousands, — 

Its mansions are filled with their groans. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE, 


159 


The rich and the poor and the needy 
Are moaning and writhing in pain ; 

For help ! oh, for help ! they are wailing, 

In agony : but not in vain. 

For God, in his infinite mercy. 

Has heard their sad cries in his name ; 

His great heart is filled with compassion ; 

He pities and sends them his aid. 

’Tis nif ht in the beautiful country, 

Wh< j the air is so sweet and so pure, 
Where no dust from the smoke of the city 
Dims the light of thy skies so blue. 

Her children are sleeping so sweetly, 

Not dreaming of sorrow or crime ; 

When, hark ! comes the news from the city, — 
The pestilence walks in its prime. 

O child of the beautiful country ! 

Thy heart is all kindness and truth ; 

With both hands she beckons the city 
To come and find rest ’neath her roof. 

They come from the fear-stricken city. 

The children of fever and pain ; 

They come, and the country receives them; 
For the country is always the same. 


LINES. 

Written on the death of Dora Rankin, a young lady who left 
her home in Tennessee when only seventeen years of age, and 
went out to China, where she served as a missionary until her 


i6o 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


death, which occurred two years ago, when she was twenty-five 
years old. 

Far away from her home 

And the ones she loved there. 

In the sweet blush of girlhood. 

So young and so fair. 

She gave her pure heart 
And its service to God ; 

Now she sleeps, gently sleeps, 

’Neath a lone foreign sod. 

Ah ! lonely and sad 

Is that once happy home ; 

Lonely and sad, 

' Now its sunlight has gone. 

Her short life is spent. 

Her work is well done ; 

Now sweetly she rests 
In her heavenly home. 


OH, NO! WE NEVER MENTION HER. 

Oh, no ! we never mention her ; 

The fate, so dark and sad. 

Which overtook her sunny youth, — 

Her life so gay and glad, — 

Was all so dark and rayless. 

It quenched the brightest light 
Which beamed upon our hearthstone. 

And left it dark as night. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


l6l 


Oh, no ! we never mention her. 

She was our only child, 

A petted and a wayward one, 

And just a little wild. 

Ah, when she was a little one. 

Her face was sweet and fair ; 

Her eyes were like the deep blue sky, 
And golden was her hair. 

She was the sunlight of our eyes, 

The brightest, fairest treasure 

That ever blessed a father’s heart 
Or made his home a pleasure. 

But there came a dark-eyed stranger 
Into our home one day ; 

He wooed and won our darling. 

Then took her far away. 

For she loved and wed the stranger. 
And left her happy home ; 

And e’en the flowers missed her. 

Oh ! now that she had gone. 

Oh, no ! we never mention her. 

She was the fairest bride 

That ever left the village 
Upon the mountain-side. 

We missed our pure white rose-bud. 
Oh ! now that she had gone, — 

Gone from the hearts which loved her 
Unto a stranger’s home. 

Ah, when he won our darling. 

Her heart was light and free ; 

Her cheeks were like the roses 
Which blossom in the May. 

14* 


i 62 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


But soon, ah ! soon, she wandered back. 
Back to the dear old home. 

Back to the hearts which loved her. 

Ah ! never more to roam. 

We hardly knew our little one. 

She looked so pale and sad ; 

It did not seem the same bright face 
Which went away so glad. 

Only a tender, bleeding heart. 

Only a broken flower, 

Only a white rose crushed to death 
Beneath Intemperance’ power. 

He came one dark and stormy night, 
And, kneeling at her feet. 

He begged for her forgiveness. 

In accents low and meek. 

He said he’d always loved her. 

That drink had made him wild, 

And made him harsh and cruel 
Unto our darling child. 

She laid her hand upon his head. 

Among the clustering curls ; 

It looked just like a snow-flake. 

Or one of ocean’s pearls. 

“ My darling, I forgive,” 

She whispered low, and sighed ; 

Her head drooped on her bosom. 

And with a smile she died. 

Ah, ’twas drink which killed our darling. 
It broke her happy heart ; 

’Twas drink made desolate our home 
And tore our lives apart. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


163 


Yes, ’twas drink which killed our darling; 

Now the flowers above her weep ; 

In her little grave so lonely 
She rests in peaceful sleep. 

Oh, no ! we seldom mention her. 

Our heads are old and gray. 

Are bowed and bent with sorrow. 

As we toil along the way. 


164 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


FASHION. 

Fashion! mistress, queen, sovereign of the 
world. Thou hast more worshippers, more idola- 
ters who bend at thy throne, than any monarch on 
the face of the earth. Spend one of our loveliest 
days under the clear blue sky or ’neath the shade 
of the green trees among thy votaries, and, instead 
of admiring the beautiful picture which God paints 
for us with his own mighty hand, what are ,they 
looking at, what are they thinking of, but the 
ruffles and flounces and follies of fashion ? See 
them gather in groups ; hear their good-natured 
comments on their neighbors’ dresses. Perchance 
some poor unfortunate has not adopted the last 
change, the latest caprice of her queenship their 
goddess. Let her have twice the goodness, twice 
the intellect, e’en thrice the sweet gift of beauty, 
and where does she stand in their estimation? 
“Just look at that train, will you? how horrid j 
not one bit of style ; she’d be right pretty if she 
only knew how to dress,” says a ruffled and plaited 
and bedizened young miss, as she glances compla- 
cently at her own gaudy suit, when perhaps the 
much-abused young lady had too much sense to 
follow in the steps of her better- dressed sisters, 
the self-appointed critics of society. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 165 

In the great world of fashion 'tis not the bird, 
but the plumage; borrowed, at that, from the 
innocent birds and beasts of the forest; copied 
from the sweet flowers which strew the broad 
earth with their beauty, the bright stars which 
gem the blue heavens with light ; stolen from the 
eaves of the boundless deep, — the beautiful, beau- 
tiful sea. Poor, empty-headed, small-hearted slave 
of fashion, what a small atom thou art in God’s 
grand and wonderful creation ! 

But, after all, what is all this but the effect of 
education? Educate your daughters to have 
aspirations a little higher than the width of a ruffle. 
What time have they for the cultivation of their 
better, higher nature, when their whole souls are 
wrapped in the complicated make of one of our 
fashionable dresses ? Tell them that the fate of the 
world does not hang on a ribbon ; that, though it 
is the fashion to wear young alligators on the 
latest style of hats, they will be just as worthy 
without one on theirs. Teach them that true 
politeness which comes only from the heart. Let 
them not fear the fair tyrant who rules so many 
gentle hearts, spends so many fortunes, causes so 
many puzzled heads to ache, tires so many pretty 
fingers. Tell them their faces will be just as fair, 
their eyes just as bright, — nay, brighter, for then 
may be seen the true soul flashing through them. 
Chase yon pale girl from her needle; make her 


1 66 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

take a race over the fields or a gallop through the 
woods, and there find the roses to bloom on her 
cheeks. Tell yon young scion to throw away his 
cigar, to quit looking at the rim of his hat and the 
fit of his coat, and, above all, to raise his head 
above his boots. Lead him to higher, nobler 
work, and then we will have a better, healthier, 
nobler race of men and women than the feeble, 
insignificant creatures who now inhabit this bright 
and beautiful world. 


INTEMPERANCE. 

Intemperance, thou bane of society ! why is it 
that thy deluded victims hug thee to their bosoms 
with such insane delight? Where is thy beauty, 
what is thy charm, that, in spite of the prayers of 
thousands — nay, millions — of earth’s suffering chil- 
dren, thou glidest on in thy triumphal car, like 
the war-chariot of the ancients, unheeding the 
groans, the anguish of the bleeding thousands o’er 
which it rolls ? while thy fierce driver, none other 
than his Satanic Majesty, the dark spirit of evil, 
urges on his fiery steeds, as, with a grim smile, 
he contemplates his fiendish work and gloats o’er 
his prey, or, like the loathsome serpent, fixes his 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


167 


piercing eye, glowing with strange, beguiling 
beauty, on the face of his innocent victim, luring 
him on with his fatal gaze, dazzling, glittering 
brightening, softening in all its fascinating, be- 
wildering beauty, as with slow and graceful move- 
ments the loathsome reptile nears his hapless 
prey ; the poor charmed innocent never seeing his 
peril, never dreaming of danger, until he feels the 
slimy folds of the monster coiling round and round 
his helpless form, never pausing to give his strug- 
gling victim one chance for his life, but tightening 
his coil ; until at last a mother’s darling, a sister’s 
hope, a father’s pride lies a helpless, strangled 
corpse in the fierce grasp, the loathsome embrace 
of that crawling snake. Go where you will, on 
land or on sea, o’er the snows of the North, o’er 
the flowers of the “sunny South,’’ his track has 
passed that way. Into many a happy home has 
he trailed his serpent length, and left only woe and 
misery behind, and goes on and on o’er all this fair 
and beautiful world, spreading his fatal charm, 
polluting the pure fresh air of heaven with his 
poison breath. Ah! many a fair face, glowing 
with happiness and joy, hast thou stained with the 
blush of anguish and shame; many a bright cheek 
hast thou caused to fade, many a lovely flower to 
droop and die. Origin of evil, fountain of sin. 
Intemperance, couldst thou and thine advocates 
count the tears, number the groans, thou hast 


1 68 CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 

wrung from the hearts of earth’s suffering millions, 
look into the graves which but for thee had not 
been filled, thou wouldst tremble. 

Intemperance ! thou monster upon the face of 
the earth; however cunningly disguised, in the 
liquid sparkling foam of the purest, clearest wine, 
or in the deeper, darker hue of the dregs of sin 
and woe, thou art still the true agent, the prime 
minister of the wicked evil one. Yet we believe 
that much of the evil done in saying, “ Come, 
boys, let’s take a drink,” is not through any evil 
intention, not with any bad motive; but simply 
through a thoughtless, don’t-care spirit. Could 
the one who gives the invitation think of the con- 
sequences, he would probably shrink from the act, 
and, instead of saying to another, ” Let’s take a 
glass,” would lead him away from the temptation, 
as some are noble enough to do, and say, “ Think 
of the trouble, the anxiety you may cause the dear 
ones at home.” Could they think of the prisons 
and the graves which intemperance fills, we are 
very sure that there would not be many who 
would say, ” Come, boys, let’s take a glass.” But 
there are many — so many that their name is 
“ legion” — who do not wait for an invitation, but 
will sponge on the store-keepers, or take the 
money which should feed and clothe the hungry, 
suffering ones at home, to appease their raging 
thirst for intoxicating liquors. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 1 69 

But still the first step, the first glass has to 
be taken, and woe unto the one who, from a mis- 
taken idea of friendship and generosity, offers that 
first glass. Would you give your friend poison? 
Better, far better offer him a cup of strychnine or 
arsenic, for God cares for the widow and the 
orphan, the suffering and the needy, and He will 
avenge their wrongs. And shall I say itf Yes, for 
it is the truth : sometimes that first glass is offered 
by the fair hand of zvoman, that hand which should 
point to all that is good ; and, alas ! that I should 
have truth to back me in saying, her rosy lips are 
sometimes stained by the same poisoned draught. 

But liquor carries with it its own fiery curse; 
and, instead of pampering and feeding and rearing 
up the monster, why don’t all the noble women 
and brave men in the world unite and crush the 
black and poisonous serpent which is strangling so 
many of our noble youths to death in its filthy 
coils, which is killing our greatest and our best, 
which is scattering its vile poison far and wide, 
which is casting its withering curse o’er all this 
beautiful world ? One after another, like the noble 
oaks of the forest when the fatal axe of the “ wood- 
man” is aimed at their hearts, we see our brave 
boys fall ; those who might brighten their homes, 
bless and gladden the world, but for that deadly 
poison. Look .at yon old and gray-haired father, 
whose honored head is silvered o’er with the snows 

15 


170 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


of many winters; see him ready, waiting to cast 
his mantle around the shoulders of the pride of 
his heart, the prop and stay of his old age, — his 
only son, — and, if you can, imagine his agony to 
see that son, the idol of his life, tottering, stagger- 
ing home under the influence of intoxicating 
liquors sold to him by gentlemen ! Think of the 
grief of the loving mother, the tears of the gentle 
sister, the anguish of one to whom he is dearer 
perhaps than all, when you say, “ Come, boys, let’s 
take a glass.” Think what that one glass may 
cause, and beware, oh ! beware of the consequences. 
All who take drinks and all who sell them should 
pause for their own sakes and for the sake of their 
loved ones; should pause for the sake of their 
immortal souls ; should pause and implore the 
great and merciful Ruler of the universe to aid 
them in exterminating from the face of this broad 
and beautiful world that father of sin, that monster 
of evil. Intemperance, which, like the vile serpent 
of old, crept into the garden of Eden, and blighted 
its fair, sweet flowers. 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


171 


IS WOMAN’S MIND INFERIOR TO 
MAN’S? 

This is a question which was discussed at one 
of our colleges a little over a year ago; and, 
though it may seem out of place for a lady to 
take up the gauntlet, yet it is perfectly natural 
that she should, and the inevitable law of self-de- 
fence compels one to do so, instead of leaving it 
in the heart and hands of some noble, gallant, 
chivalrous knight; though there are some who 
would willingly undertake the task, but I fancy 
the majority would much rather tip their chairs 
back, place their feet on the baluster-railing and 
smoke their fragrant Havanas in conscious, though 
only fancied, superiority, than trouble themselves 
at all on the subject. 

Is woman inferior to man ? Then why was she 
taken from his side, probably the one nearest the 
heart? That may be the reason why she has so 
much more heart than man ; but it does not prove 
by a?iy means that she was ever intended to be 
his inferior; it seems rather to imply that she is 
his equal, at least. 

If she is not his equal, why is it that, when boys 
and girls attend school together, the girls so often 
excel the boys in their studies? Give them the 


1/2 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


same books, place them in the same classes, and 
where was it ever proved that a girl’s mind was 
inferior to a boy’s ? True, a woman’s education is 
very often limited ; the object generally sought in 
educating a young lady is only to teach her the 
lighter and more showy branches, something to 
make her pleasing and attractive in the eyes of 
society. Henceforth her education is often only a 
showy and superficial one. So, never mind what 
her natural talents may be when entering school, 
the footsteps of a young girl are seldom guided 
where she may “ drink deep” from the inexhausti- 
ble fountain of knowledge; and, if her sweet lips 
chance to sip e’en a taste of the strong, pure waters, 
and she bends her bright young head to take one 
more, she is hastily drawn back by her friends or 
the force of public opinion, A woman must not 
know too much, but must keep within bounds. 
And if, through some accident or the exercise of 
a small amount of independence, she chances to 
glean one bright leaf from the green chaplet of 
fame, she is called a blue-stocking, not only by 
the gallant gentlemen of this age of improvement, 
but by her sisters also. O woman ! woman ! you 
should offer your sisters a helping hand, give them 
some encouragement, if her brothers do not. 

Nevertheless, though never for one instant tol- 
erating anything masculine or unwomanly in a 
woman, there have been instances w'here she has 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


173 


shown courage equal to if not excelling that of 
man. Turn back a few pages of history, and re- 
view the short life and tragic death of Joan of Arc, 
the youthful Maid of Orleans, who gained and 
placed his lost crown upon a weak monarch’s 
head. And what reward did she receive but base- 
ness and ingratitude from the cowardly king, even 
when the envy and jealousy of some of his own 
officers was one cause of her fall ? What re- 
ward did she receive ? He did not make one 
effort to save the generous and heroic girl from 
her cruel fate, but sat calmly on the throne which 
she had secured, while his gentle preserver was 
being murdered by the black-robed hypocrites who 
assumed the holy garb of religion to cover their 
hideous crime. Why was there not one — only one 
— noble hero daring enough to rush from the 
throng of wide-eyed spectators, sever the ropes 
which bound the bleeding victim, and rescue the 
innocent girl, even though the one brave deed had 
been at the price of his own precious life ? His 
name would have been deathless on the brightest 
page of history. But she was left to suffer alone, 
while the cruel flames wreathed around and around 
her helpless form. Shame ! that history should 
tell such a tale on the “superior” sex. 

When did England enjoy a happier, more peace- 
ful, more prosperous time than during the reign of 
her present queen? And though her ministers 
15* 


174 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


and Parliament may get all the praise, yet look at 
some of the countries ruled exclusively by men, 
and mark the contrast, — France, Russia, and Italy, 
for instance. With what heroism the queenly 
Maria Theresa urged on her noble soldiers to save 
their country and her kingdom, until her gallant 
knights shouted, in wild enthusiasm, “ We will 
die for our King Maria Theresa !” And Marie 
Antoinette, her beautiful but unfortunate daughter : 
how far superior was she in intellect, as well as 
decision of character, to her husband, the weak 
and undecided Louis, whose most noted accom- 
plishment consisted in the act of knocking the top 
off an egg with ease and precision! Think of the 
sad fate of the beautiful and accomplished Queen 
of Scots, the noble Madame Roland, and the lovely 
and youthful Lady Jane Grey, who, with all life’s 
young morning before her, laid down her gentle 
head upon the block and died without a murmur. 

Who was “ first at the sepulchre” ? who nearer 
the cross than woman ? Who denied the Saviour 
when it almost seemed like risking life to recog- 
nize him ? Not woman ! even when one of his 
own beloved disciples shrank away in pitiful cow- 
ardice, while he stained his lips with a thrice-ut- 
tered falsehood, and then afterwards “ wept bitterly” 
for the fault. Which was the weak and which the 
strong! Who betrayed, who crucified our loving 
Saviour? Was it woman? To whom did the 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


175 


angels first appear, — nay, the Messiah Himself, 
after He had risen from the dead, — was it to man ? 
And if God has so honored and exalted woman, 
what right has man to say that she is his inferior ? 

Where is there a woman who would not die for 
those she loves ? When was she ever known to 
shrink from danger and sickness and death for the 
sake of those whom she loved ? When has she 
ever shown weakness or indecision in defence of 
home, friends, or country? Who would smooth 
the rough pillow of the sufferer but for woman’s 
gentle hand ? Who ever watched by the bedside 
of the invalid, till the stars grew pale and the 
song-birds awoke the dewy morn, with aching 
heart and weary frame, but woman, gentle, suffer- 
ing woman? Who ever learned to suffer and be 
still, if not woman ? Who ever bore the slights 
and insults of the fallen idol of her life, her un- 
worthy husband, with more loving forbearance, 
more gentle patience than woman ? 

A woman’s greatest weakness, and her truest 
strength also, is in her heart, but that is no reason 
why her mind should be weak. We have but- to 
look about us for only a little while, to see how 
weak, how unworthy, in many cases is the one 
who should steer his bark o’er life’s stormy sea; 
and how often do we find the oar which guides 
the ship which bears all her loved ones grasped 
by the loving hand of woman ! And, though we 


176 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


believe there is no nobler or stronger or grander 
being in existence than man, when he really is 
good and great, yet we cannot say that we are his 
inferiors, because we are not. And yet we are, to 
a very great extent, in the power, almost entirely 
at the mercy, of stern, proud man. And oh, how 
tenderly he should guard the gentle being placed 
in his care, under his protection ! God gave her to 
him not only as the companion of his lighter 
hours, but to be his comfort and solace when his 
sky is dark with the clouds of adversity. And 
has she not performed her task ? Has she not 
lifted the bowed head, and by her sweet and 
winning ways made the strong man smile when 
all around was dark ? 

The advance of civilization in all countries has 
ever been marked by the way in which their 
women are treated. To realize what the world 
would be without her holy and refining influence, 
visit some of the gold-mines of California, where 
one is rarely seen, and you might possibly form a 
faint idea, and wonder why it is that the influence 
of such an inferior being is so much missed by 
the rough miners who are worse than .savages. 
But as far back as history reaches we can read of 
the influence, the power of woman, even among 
the cruel savages of North America. What did 
the rude and untaught, but gentle and beautiful 
Pocahontas do but risk her own precious life to 


CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. 


177 


save that of a stranger ? To whom did that colony 
owe its preservation at one time from all the hor- 
rors of starvation, but to that brave girl ? 

Is woman’s mind inferior to man’s? Then what 
has become of the names of Florence Nightingale, 
Madame de Stael, Hannah More, Elizabeth Barrett 
Browning, Mrs. Wesley, Lochie and Dora Rankin, 
and many, many others whom we have not the 
time nor the space to name ? . True, her frame is 
weaker, her sphere is different from proud man’s, 
but that does not prove that her mind is inferior 
to his. What is stronger and truer and more self- 
sacrificing than a mother’s deathless love for her 
unfortunate child? a wife’s for her husband? a 
maiden’s for her lover? When all in the wide 
world defame and forsake and scorn him, “ true as 
steel” she will hope for him, pray for him, cling to 
him, follow him to the very gates of death, true 
to the last. And when her work is well done, and 
she lays her weary head to sleep 'neath the sweet 
flowers that gem the earth’s bosom, no purer, 
nobler, loftier record can be found on the pages of 
history than woman’s. 


THE END. 


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